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RiceTec Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryAgribusiness
PredecessorFarms of Texas Company
Founded1990
Headquarters
Houston
,
Texas
Key people
Michael Gumina (CEO),
ProductsHybrid Seed Rice, Consumer Rice
Number of employees
~250
Websitewww.ricetec.com

RiceTec Inc. is a private American company based in Alvin, Texas, and headquartered in Houston, Texas, that develops and produces hybrid rice seed for the American and various international markets. RiceTec also owns the consumer brand name RiceSelect which markets Texmati brand rice in grocery stores throughout North America.[1] The company was founded in 1990 as a foreign for profit corporation and is owned by the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation.[2][3] RiceTec was the first and is currently the only company to commercialize hybrid rice in the Americas.[citation needed]

Hybrid seed rice

Development of hybrid rice began in the United States in 1980, as a partnership between the China National Seed Corporation and Ring Around Seed Corporation. These early attempts at growing hybrid rice were met with limited success due to problems in production and grain characteristics. In 1986 Farms of Texas Co. (at the time a large corporate farm) became part of the partnership to help develop better production practices and further research.[4] Farms of Texas Co. was re-formed as RiceTec Inc. in 1990 and formed a partnership with the Chinese National Hybrid Rice Research Center in 1993 to provide RiceTec with exclusive access to Chinese germplasm.[5] RiceTec marketed its first commercial hybrid rice line in 2000, with the introduction of the Hybrid XL6, followed shortly by XL7 and XL8 in 2002.[5] RiceTec introduced its first Newpath Herbicide resistant rice (in a partnership with BASF) known as Clearfield XL8 in 2003.[6]

Litigation

Basmati patent controversy

RiceTec became widely known in the late 1990s due to an attempt by the company to patent Basmati rice.[7] Basmati rice had historically been grown in India and Pakistan for many centuries, however neither country had ever patented the particular variety of rice. The claiming of the patent by RiceTec angered many farmers, officials, and NGOs in the region who perceived the act as theft of intellectual property and vowed to fight the patent, especially since the information provided to Ricetec in large came from the acquirement of knowledge and variety of basmati seeds at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.[8] They allowed for duplicate germplasms to be stored in a seed bank in Fort Collins.[9][10]

The patent was originally accepted by the US Patent Office in 1997, but was officially challenged by the Indian government in 2000 and most patent claims were overturned in the US in 2002.[9][11][12] Despite this, RiceTec continues to market their "Texmati" brand of rice as "long grain American Basmati", although no patents or trademarks on the title "Basmati" are currently held by the company (a current trademark is however held for "Texmati".)[13]

Due to World Trade Union trade rules that prohibited any barriers to free trade, countries were banned from requiring GM food from being labeled as such.[8] This means that farmers of the rice plants in the Philippines, who had been growing the seeds freely for some time had no idea they were buying patented seeds. Regardless, the were made to pay fees for cultivating the plant. Because of this, thousands of Filipino farmers were forced into bankruptcy, therefore losing their business and land. On top of having to pay for the seeds, farmers were also made to pay for the fertilizer and pesticides needed for the GM seeds to work. By the late 1990s, at least 4,000 basmati rice farmers had died from the pesticide, either from mishandling or suicide.[8][14]


Seed quality lawsuit

A countersuit (in response to a suit filed by RiceTec for non-payment) was filed against RiceTec on July 6, 2012, in Green County Arkansas, by Scott Meredith, a rice farmer from Green County. The suit alleged that Meredith had been sold both impure and defective seed by RiceTec, and also accused RiceTec of negligence, breach of contract, breach of warranty, and violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for misrepresenting and mislabeling its seed.[15] According to the lead attorney for the plaintiff, the hybrid seed rice he (Scott Meredith) purchased had inferior milling characteristics that hurt marketability and did not yield as was promised by the company.[16] The case received widespread attention in the rice producing areas of the United States and prompted RicTec CEO John Nelsen to issue a statement rebuffing all allegations and promising to fight the lawsuit.[17] In November 2012, a judge dismissed the claim against RiceTec.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "RiceTec, Inc". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  2. ^ "Company Overview of RiceTec,Inc". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  3. ^ Nelson Antosh. "Using best brains on modified grains Rice-seed outfit wants to spread word on hybrids". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 17 March 2013.[permanent dead link‍]
  4. ^ Beachell, H.M. (21–25 September 1987). "The need for a global rice research system". Progress in Irrigated Rice Research: 323.
  5. ^ a b Walton, M. (2003). "Hybrid rice for mechanized agriculture". Hybrid Rice for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation, and Environmental Protection: 97–104.
  6. ^ Robinson, Elton. "Hybrid rice excels in field". Delta Farm Press. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  7. ^ USA Expired 5663484, EUGENIO S. SARREAL, "NOVEL BASMATI RICE LINES AND GRAINS", issued 09/02/1997 
  8. ^ a b c Doran, Christopher (2012). Making the World Safe for Capitalism: How Iraq Threatened the US Economic Empire and had to be Destroyed. Pluto Press. p. 217. ISBN 9780745332222.
  9. ^ a b Mukherjee, Utsav. "A Study of the Basmati Case (India-US Basmati Rice Dispute): The Geographical Indication Perspective". doi:10.2139/ssrn.114320. SSRN 1143209. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ Saritha, Rai (2001-08-25). "India-U.S. Fight on Basmati Rice Is Mostly Settled". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  11. ^ USA Reexamination Certificate Issued 90/005,709, "BASMATI RICE LINES AND GRAINS", issued 1-29-2002 
  12. ^ "USA: RiceTec statement regarding reexamination of U.S. Patent No. 5,663,484". just-food. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  13. ^ "Texmati white rice". RiceSelect. Archived from the original on 28 February 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Engdahl, F. William (2007). Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation. Global Research. ISBN 9780973714722.
  15. ^ RiceTec Inc. vs. Scott meredith D/B/A Scott Meredith Farms Partnership (Greene Co.Circuit 7/6/2012), Text.
  16. ^ "Farmers in Louisiana and Texas join RiceTec lawsuit". Associated Press. The Times=Picayune. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  17. ^ Keller, Rich. "RiceTec to defend its seed in court". Ag Professional. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  18. ^ Keller, Rich (November 25, 2012). "Judge dismisses claims against RiceTec". agprofessional.com. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
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