The lawsuits currently filed against Syngenta claim that farmers suffered substantial economic losses when Syngenta introduced a genetically modified seed into the U.S. market prior to receiving important approvals from important US export countries like China.

Syngenta’s Agrisure Viptera was approved by the U.S. market in 2010. It is a genetically modified corn seed that has been altered to contain a protein that kills corn eating bugs such as earworms and cutworms.

Although the United States approved Agrisure Viptera in 2010, it took several more years for China, one of the largest U.S. exports of corn, to approve the seed.

It is routine for China to refrain from approving genetically modified seeds until its own testing on the product is complete. China is one of the major sources of corn export revenue for U.S. farmers.

According to several Syngenta lawsuits, although the company knew they could not prevent the GMO corn seed from entering and effecting the entire U.S. corn supply, it still released the seed onto the market.

In November 2013, China found Agrisure Viptera in several U.S. corn shipments. This caused China to reject all corn shipments sent from the United States. This boycott of the shipments has caused U.S. corn growers to lose over $3 billion in revenue.

After discovering the genetically contaminated corn China rejected over 131 million bushels of corn. Sygnenta is now being said to have gambled with the livelihood of American farmers by exporting the GMO seeds prior to receiving China’s approvals.

Due to the immense financial losses of U.S. farmers, Syngenta lawsuits have been filed in at least 20 states. The GMO lawsuits are being filed by both small farmers and large farm businesses. Two of the larger farming conglomerates Cargill and ADM have filed for nearly $100 million dollars in losses.

Although China eventually approved the Syngenta Agrisure Viptera seed in December 2014, American farmers still lost an immense amount of money, and the corn markets have not fully recovered from the earlier corn seed boycott.

Awards and settlements from these Syngenta lawsuits will likely help U.S. farmers recover some of the economic losses they experienced during the boycott. Plaintiffs also include farmers who did not purchase or grow Agrisure Viptera seeds due to the fact that the boycott involved all U.S. corn.