An Ohio corn farmer has become the latest in a string of plaintiffs to sue Syngenta Seeds Inc. and related defendants for selling him genetically modified (GMO) corn seed before it was approved for export to China.

Like other U.S. farmers, plaintiff Lucas S. claims  that he never would have purchased the GMO corn seed if he had known China was denying U.S. corn shipments containing the genetically modified corn. This denial by the world’s third largest importer of U.S. corn has cost American farmers billions of dollars in losses, according to Lucas and dozens of other U.S. farmers filing class action lawsuits against Syngenta.

Lucas owns one of nearly 400,000 farms in America that grows corn, and relies on his crops to make a living. The U.S. exports about 20 percent of its domestic corn production to other countries, predominantly to China, Japan and Mexico, his Syngenta corn lawsuit explains.

In 2011, Syngenta began selling a genetically modified corn seed called Viptera MIR162 to U.S. farmers like Lucas that was designed to provide tougher defenses against corn pests such as cutworms and corn earworms. At the time, “China had not approved the importation of Viptera corn in the 2013/2014 growing season, [and] maintained a zero-tolerance policy regarding contamination of corn imports with corn containing MIR162,” Lucas says in his Syngenta corn lawsuit.

This zero-tolerance policy meant that any detection of MIR162 corn in a shipment to China could result in the entire shipment being rejected. Syngenta had knowledge of this policy prior to the commercialization and release of Viptera corn, the Syngenta corn lawsuit says, but “promptly” began marketing, distributing, and selling its Viptera corn seeds to U.S. farmers as soon as it was approved for sale in America, the lawsuit says.

“Knowing that contamination of Viptera corn with the rest of the U.S. corn supply was inevitable, Syngenta nevertheless gambled U.S. farmers’ livelihood on approval of Viptera by the major corn importing countries. Syngenta projected that sales of Viptera would ultimately exceed 20% of the corn seed market.”

The insect resistance in MIR162 corn seed comes from a bacteria gene called Vip3Aa20 (Vip = Vegetative insecticidal protein), which acts as a toxin to insects and other parasites. Despite the benefits of being a parasite blocker, it cannot be completely isolated from the corn seeds, which allows it to cross-pollinate with other corn plants. This fear of cross-contamination led to nearly all America’s corn exports from the 2013/2014 growing season to be rejected by China.

The Syngenta lawsuit is Lucas S. v. Syngenta Seeds Inc., Case No. 2:15-cv-02306-JWL-JPO, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Ohio.

It is one of dozens of similar lawsuits and class action lawsuits seeking damages from Syngenta for its allegedly fraudulent and negligent marketing of Viptera corn seed.