On June 23, after eight years of campaigning, Bayer has withdrawn their application for GE rice in Brazil.

Brazilian farmers have made clear that they don’t want GE rice. The reasons include soaring patent costs, problems with weed resistance and consumer suspicion about having a staple crop polluted with GE. Among the farmer groups that have worked to resist GE infiltrating Brazils rice fields is the Rice Federation of Rio Grande do Sul, the region which accounts for 60% of Brazilian rice production.

It might have been more than just the Brazilian’s rejection of GE rice that made Bayer act. They are also currently taking a pounding in the US courts, having to pay out tens of millions of dollars to rice producers affected by their contamination of the US rice supply in 2006.

Another major win for clean farming was announced in India in June where in the year 2009-10, organic cotton farmers earned 200% more net income than farmers who grew Genetically Engineered cotton [Bt cotton]. Click here for a photo-essay that tells an uplifting story of the triumph of organic farming, as well as the heartbreaking impact GE is having on small cotton farmers in India.