A Syngenta class action lawsuit filed by the Illinois-based Hadden Farms Inc. is one of over one thousand cases that are being transferred into one investigation.

Syngenta Genetically Modified Corn Overview

Corn is one of the largest U.S. exports worldwide, holding great importance for farmers and exporters across the country. In 2009, Syngenta introduced agenetically modified (GMO) strain of corn known as Viptera, or MIR 162. Viptera was designed to protect the corn crop from certain corn-eating bugs.

Syngenta released the corn into the market before all countries involved in the corn trade had approved it. Although Syngenta submitted it to China for approval in 2010, China did not approve the strain until late 2014. While Syngenta continued to wait for Viptera approval, American farmers continued to grow the corn seed under the impression that China would soon approve Viptera.  

Rather than rapidly approving Viptera, however, in November 2013 China rejected all U.S. corn shipments that had any trace of the MIR 162 corn. Although only a small percentage of American corn crops contain the GMO strain, because corn is commingled and consolidated for export the exporters could not ensure that any shipment from the United States would not contain trace amounts of MIR 162. The Syngenta lawsuit claims that as a result, the vast majority of U.S. corn has been effectively excluded from a large export market.   

This allegedly caused anyone involved in the corn export industry to suffer serious financial difficulties. 

Syngenta Class Action Lawsuit

This Syngenta lawsuit was filed by Hadden Farms, an Illinois company responsible for growing and selling corn. According to the Syngenta class action lawsuit, “Hadden Farms does not buy MIR 162 seed from Syngenta. Instead, Hadden Farms only buys corn seed that has either not been genetically modified, or corn seed genetically modified with traits that have been approved by all major corn importing countries, including China.”

The plaintiffs claim that Syngenta’s misleading and negligent behavior has caused them and others to suffer serious financial setbacks that will affect the corn export market for multiple years. According to the Syngenta class action lawsuit, the Chinese rejection of U.S. corn, resulting from concerns that all of the U.S. corn supply had been contaminated with MIR 162, led to a projected loss of $1.14 billion for the last nine months of the 2014 marketing year.

This Syngenta class action lawsuit is one of 1,400 cases that are being consolidated in to an MDL (multidistrict litigation). Originally, the Syngenta MDL contained less than 600 claims against the GMO corn manufacturer. Cases are being consolidated from across the country.

This Syngenta Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 2:14-cv-02639, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Springfield Division.