Judge Brian S. Miller, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, has dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit brought by several rice farmers against several poultry companies, specifically including Tyson Foods, Inc., Simmons Food, Inc., George’s Inc., and Peterson Farms, Inc.  A Northwest Arkansas Business Journal article regarding the decision is available here.  According to the article, the lawsuit alleged, inter alia, that the defendants “‘knew or should have known excessive arsenic in chicken litter used as fertilizer on many rice farms in Arkansas would contaminate the entire U.S. rice crop and inflitrate the general U.S. rice supply.'”

The article adds the following:

“We appreciate the court’s decision to dismiss this case,” Tyson Foods director of public relations Gary Mickelson said in an emailed statement.  “As we said last year, this lawsuit is an example of frivolous litigation designed to extract money from companies that have done nothing wrong.  None of our chickens are given feed additives containing arsenic.”