An independent lab has determined that rice seed for sale this year by the LSU AgCenter’s Rice Research Station is free of Liberty Link, according to Steve Linscombe, the station director.
“All seed stocks offered for sale have tested negative for all Liberty Link traits,” said Linscombe, who is the LSU AgCenter’s regional director for southwestern Louisiana, including the rice station.
The Liberty Link trait was developed to allow farmers to spray the Liberty herbicide to control weeds in genetically modified rice without killing the crop.
Liberty Link rice has not been offered for sale by its developer, Bayer CropScience. But small amounts of the trait were found in rice shipped to the European Union last year – upsetting the sale of U.S. rice to countries in the EU.
Sampling of the seed stocks was conducted by personnel from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Linscombe said, and the analyses were conducted by a private, independent seed lab in Wisconsin certified to conduct such analyses.
Both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have reviewed the scientific data and concluded there is no human health, food, safety or environmental concern associated with this genetically engineered rice.
(This article was published in the winter 2007 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.) |