Legal Liability Issues in Agricultural Biotechnology

The growing of transgenic crops from agricultural biotechnology has given rise to questions about possible legal liability that might exist for companies that create transgenic crops and farmers who grow them. This article explores these legal liability issues by discussing possible claims for damage to property, damage to persons, and damage to economic interests (markets). The author discusses various tort and product liability theories to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each theory as applied to transgenic crops. The author focuses on three potential sources for claims: organic agricultural, biopharmeceutical crops, and unapproved-in-export-market crops