In recent corn market news, GMO corn giant Syngenta says they are not the only ones responsible for tainting U.S. corn with genetically modified corn seeds, saying that any third-party corn distributor is also equally responsible for the situation.

Syngenta, manufacturers of genetically modified corn, is the target of multidistrict litigation in recent farming news, where many farmers have filed claims against the company for tainting non-GMO corn, causing the mixed shipments of corn to be rejected by China in 2013.

China stopped importing any corn that was tainted with Syngenta’s Vipetra corn seed, dealing a large economic blow to many in the whole corn industry.

Thousands of farmers, corn supply companies and corn distributors including Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc. claim that billions of dollars were lost in profits due to China’s rejection of the Vipetra corn, according to recent corn market news.

In the latest court action in farming news, Syngenta claims that corn distributors should be held equally guilty as Syngenta for not attempting to separate the Vipetra corn from the non-GMO corn in preparation for shipment, even though they were aware that the shipment could contain Vipetra corn.

Additionally, Syngenta also accused Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill of purposely deciding to send the mixed corn shipments to China for the purpose of cashing in on record-high corn prices, despite the corn distributor companies’ failure to obtain the biosafety certificate required by China prior to the import, according to recent corn market news.

“Although Cargill and ADM had successfully exported corn to China that likely contained Viptera in 2011 and 2012, in November 2013 they eventually lost their gamble: China began rejecting their shipments of U.S. corn for allegedly testing positive for Viptera,” Syngenta’s complaint claimed. “According to plaintiffs’ allegations, China eventually rejected all U.S. corn shipments.”

Syngenta argued that the responsibility to make sure China accepted corn from the U.S. rests on the corn distributor industry, since that industry is the one that is responsible for intermixing the GMO corn with the other corn supply. Syngenta maintains in recent corn market news that it was the negligence of the corn distributor that allowed the blending of the corn before shipment, not Syngenta’s fault, as they only sold the Vipetra seeds.

In corn market news, those in the corn industry argue that Syngenta knew of the potential harm to be caused by the GMO corn seed company’s actions and failed to mitigate problems, and actively acted to increase issues.

Syngenta in Corn Market News

In April 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the Vipetra corn, also known as mir162 corn, for use in the United States. The Chinese government, however, did not approve the corn for import until December 2014.

In September, U.S. District Judge Lungstrum who is presiding over the MDL dismissed trespassing claims but allowed other claims to stay, including claims for economic losses and tortuous influence.

Judge Lungstrum claimed that Syngenta owed the corn industry a duty to monitor and hold back the timing and method of Vipetra’s release to avoid economic harm to the rest of the corn industry.

Syngenta responded to Judge Lunstrum’s statement by saying, “If anyone among the players in the ‘interconnected’ corn industry has a duty to segregate U.S.- approved corn based on the presence of GM traits so as to channel corn to different export markets based on which FM traits have been approved in certain countries, it is the third party defendant grain elevators, transporters and exporters on whom the rest of the industry relies for responsibly gathering, storing, transporting and exporting U.S. corn.”

The Syngenta GMO Corn MDL is In Re Syngenta AG MIR 162 Corn Litigation, Case No. 2:14-md-02591 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.