Missy Clyne Diaz  |  March 3, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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corn-seed-syngentaIn the nearly two months since a federal judicial panel transferred eight lawsuits filed by U.S. farmers against Syngenta Corporation for allegedly causing the farmers to lose more than $1 billion by releasing genetically-engineered corn seeds to China before Beijing agreed to import them, 268 additional Syngenta lawsuits have been filed, according to a U.S. District Court memo on the multidistrict litigation.

On Dec. 11, 2014, the panel transferred eight cases to the U.S. District Court for Kansas to consolidate pretrial proceedings before the Judge John W. Lunstrum. By consolidating the cases, multiple lawsuits filed all over the country with similar questions of fact are being heard by the same judge. Doing so streamlines the litigation during the pretrial and discovery phases.

In November 2013, China began rejecting U.S. corn shipments containing Viptera — a genetically modified corn seed — depressing the overall market price for the grain, resulting in the exorbitant loss to U.S. farmers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In mid-December 2014, China approved Viptera imports.

Syngenta’s president said the Chinese approval was great news for U.S. farmers.

“Agrisure Viptera has been in strong demand for years because it offers corn growers incredible protection against the broadest spectrum of above-ground corn pests including corn earworm, black cutworm and Western bean cutworm,” the statement reads.

Despite the approval, Cargill Inc.’s chief executive officer maintains that the rejections that began in November 2013 caused the company extreme financial damage.

In addition to farmers, the Syngenta lawsuits accuse the Swiss-based corporation of causing financial harm to grain handlers and exporters.

Syngenta is an agribusiness that markets seeds and agrochemicals. The company also is involved in biotechnology and genomic research. It employs more than 28,000 people in over 90 countries

Genetically engineered foods have been a touchstone of controversy for many years. Critics allege that GMO foods are not nutritionally comparable to their natural counterparts. According to the Center for Food Safety, studies have shown that genetically engineered foods can pose serious risks to farmers, human health, domesticated animals, wildlife and the environment.

Syngenta has maintained that the lawsuits are without merit and insist that the company “has been transparent about the approval process for the GMO corn in question,” according to the Journal.

“Syngenta’s conduct in marketing, distributing and selling unapproved corn seed violates the legal standards of the marketplace because the primary market risk falls on U.S. farmers, grain handlers and exporters, not on Syngenta,” one of the lawsuits alleges.

Grain exporters such as Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Trans Coastal Supply Co. filed the first lawsuits against Syngenta after Chinese grain inspectors detected the Syngenta and turned away shipments, according to the Journal.  Dozens of farmers followed, according to Reuters. The Syngenta lawsuits have been consolidated in U.S. District Court in Kansas.

The farmers are seeking damages for the dip in corn future prices, which dropped by 18 percent in 2014, a second hit from 2013 when prices plummeted by 40 percent. Before the Syngenta issue, 2014 had been forecast as a good year for corn futures.

Syngenta began selling Viptera corn seed to U.S. farmers in 2011.

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