Arkansas Jury Awards $42 Million in Punitive Damages in Litigation Over Genetically Modified Rice

We haven’t seen many media reports of big punitive damages awards lately, in California or elsewhere. But here’s a report from the Associated Press (via the Columbia Daily Tribune) that a jury in Arkansas has awarded $5.9 million in compensatory damages and $42 million in punitive damages against Bayer CropScience. The plaintiffs, a dozen farmers, alleged that Bayer allowed genetically modified herbicide-resistant rice into the American rice market, causing some nations to ban American rice, which thereby depressed prices.