According to recent farm news, a Kansas farmer has joined the ranks of individuals filing corn farmer lawsuits against Syngenta for the biotech company’s alleged role in the decline in U.S. corn market prices.

Plaintiff Robert L. is one of many U.S. corn farmers who claim to have been negatively impacted by Syngenta’s actions and inactions in the release of the Viptera GMO corn strain and the following corn market decline.

According to Robert’s corn farmer lawsuit, the release of Syngenta’s Viptera corn strain was directly responsible for the plummeting corn prices in the U.S. corn export market.

This and similar corn farmer lawsuits claim that Syngenta not only failed to act in the interests of the U.S. corn market as a whole, but also made deliberately misleading comments about the potential impact of the Viptera strain’s release into U.S. corn.

The Syngenta lawsuit alleges hat the company was aware of the potential catastrophic economical effects of Viptera  release into the corn market and yet deliberately misrepresented this impact to the corn industry.

Syngenta failed to disclose relevant and significant information about the strain’s approval status in other countries to corn growers, as well as information about what lack of approval might mean for the industry.

Syngenta was, the corn farmer lawsuit claims, aware of the probability that China would not approve the Viptera strain, but concealed this knowledge from corn growers and other members of the corn industry, instead misleading them that China’s approval was imminent.

Ultimately, this lawsuit and lawsuits from other corn growers like the plaintiff allege that Syngenta’s actions led to the crippling of the 2013-2014 corn export market to China, damaging the plaintiff and the entire corn industry.

Robert filed his Syngenta lawsuit on multiple counts, including violation of the Lanham Act, tortious interference, and negligence, amongst others.

Syngenta’s GMO Viptera Strain

Syngenta, an agribusiness that produces seeds, has sold genetically modified (GMO) corn seed called Viptera (MIR162) to U.S. farmers since 2011. This GMO corn strain was created to protect the corn against harmful pests like corn borer and corn rootworm.

The Syngenta lawsuit claims that, while biotechnology such as that of Syngenta holds a great deal of promise for the corn industry and the country as a whole, it can also do “extraordinary harm if handled irresponsibly” and that Syngenta had a duty to “act responsibly in introducing new bio-engineered genetic traits into the market.”

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized the introduction of Syngenta’s GMO Viptera strain into the U.S. corn market. While the strain was perfectly legal to use in the U.S. market, many Syngenta lawsuits allege that it was not approved in China until October 2014.

These Viptera corn lawsuits further allege that Syngenta knew that China had a “zero tolerance” policy on corn imports, and would “reject grain imports from the U.S. upon detecting the presence of even trace amounts of an unapproved bio-engineered genetic trait in U.S. grain shipments.”

In the meantime, China had cut off U.S. corn imports, purportedly to keep Syngenta’s Viptera strain out. This ban affected all levels of the corn industry. Even after the ban was lifted, according to these lawsuits, Chinese imports of U.S. corn have drastically decreased – by about 85 percent.

Syngenta and Corn Market Farm News

Syngenta lawsuits claim that the agribusiness’ release of genetically modified corn strains into the market led directly to the Chinese ban on U.S. corn imports, which in turn dropped corn prices and severely damaged all aspects of the U.S. corn industry, and especially corn farmers.

The Syngenta corn farmer lawsuits claim that the company failed to be completely transparent about the approval status of MIR162 corn in China, and also understated the potential impact of China’s lack of approval on the U.S. corn industry.

Indeed, farm news sources indicate that the growing number of corn farmer lawsuits allege that Syngenta deliberately misled the public and the corn industry about China’s stance toward the MIR162 Viptera strain

If you or someone you know has been negatively affected by Syngenta’s Viptera strain or declining corn prices, you may be able to file an individual Syngenta corn lawsuit, or join a Syngenta class action lawsuit.

The Syngenta Corn Farmer Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-02072, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.