Crawfish group sues Icon pesticide maker

• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Jan 9, 2009 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A group of crawfish processors and buyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against the maker of a rice pesticide blamed for killing crawfish.

The case comes 10 years after the introduction of the pesticide Icon in south Louisiana, where crawfish are often farmed in the same fields as rice.

Hundreds of crawfish farmers settled with Icon-maker Aventis CropScience — now Bayer CropScience — in 2004 for $45 million.

The recent class-action lawsuit is the latest round in the lingering litigation on behalf of crawfish buyers and processors.

“It’s the same cause of action. They poisoned the crawfish, and all the people lost money,” said attorney André Toce, one of a group of attorneys representing the buyers and processors.

He estimated about 150 business owners could be eligible for a claim.

“About 100 of them went out of business,” Toce said.

Icon, which has been taken off the market, was a treatment used on rice seeds before planting.

Farmers argued that the pesticide devastated crawfish being raised in the same fields as rice. They cited production numbers that dropped by more than half the year that Icon was introduced.

Attorneys argue that the makers of Icon did not conduct thorough tests to determine the effects of Icon on crawfish and concealed what information was known about the effects.

The lawsuit claims that as recently as 2006, tests showed that components of the pesticide still remained at harmful levels in south Louisiana rice and crawfish fields.

The pesticide maker has argued that the drop in crawfish production was caused by an extensive drought.

The buyers and processors are seeking damages for lost income and lost market share associated with the declining numbers of crawfish.