Bayer CropScience has agreed to pay $750 million to settle several lawsuits with U.S. farmers who claimed a strain of the company's unapproved genetically modified rice contaminated the food supply and hurt their crop prices.
Bayer AG and attorneys for the farmers announced the settlement late Friday. The litigation goes back to 2006, when Bayer disclosed that its experimental strain of Liberty Link GMO rice was found in U.S. food supplies. No human health problems were associated with the contamination.
Farmers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas sued Bayer, saying the accident closed off critical export markets and caused the price of rice to drop.
The settlement will cover farmers who planted rice between 2006 and 2010.