Not yet clear whether Ventria backing off from Bootheel will be enough to satisfy Riceland Foods Inc., the world's largest rice miller and marketer and the largest purchaser of Missouri rice, which like the beer giant Anheuser-Busch had urged federal regulators to deny a permit for Ventria's project.
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Plans Scrapped For Growing Genetically Modified Rice In Bootheel
Anheuser-Busch Had Threatened Boycott Of SE Missouri Rice
by Steve Walsh
Saturday, April 16, 2005
http://www.missourinet.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=ECAAB8AC-9F6A-40D0-972BE6815AE86818&dbtranslator=local.cfm

A threat pays off. Anheuser-Busch had threatened to stop buying rice from growers in the Bootheel if a California-based company went ahead with plans to plant genetically modified rice in that part of the state. Ventria Bioscience plans to genetically engineer rice to produce human proteins for use in drugs. It has agreed to amend its application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to plant its rice at least 120 miles away from southeast Missouri's prime rice growing areas. Anheuser-Busch had expressed concern that the genetically engineered rice had not been declared safe for consumption and that it might have come into contact with conventional rice.