STUTTGART, Ark. - The deadline is approaching for rice farmers to submit claims in order to share in the settlement of a lawsuit against Bayer CropScience over genetically modified rice.
Bayer has agreed to a $750 million settlement. Farmers have until Oct. 10 to submit claims.
Attorney Richard Coffman represents hundreds of farmers and landowners in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas in the lawsuit. He told the Stuttgart Daily Leader that farmers who haven't started the process need to do so. There are also plaintiffs from Mississippi and Missouri.
If a farmer planted 500 acres of rice for every year from 2006 to 2010, he'd collect $155,000 at $310 per acre. Plus, farmers can collect if the contaminated rice forced them to plant another crop that didn't pay as well.
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