More than 10,000 Syngenta corn lawsuits are moving forward with town hall meetings and depositions, the first steps before the expected trials begin. Syngenta tried to get the thousands of lawsuits consolidated and pushed through the federal court system, but a Kansas judge denied the request. Judge John Lungstrum ordered that lawsuits filed in federal court will stay there, while those filed at the state level will remain in state court.

Genetically Modified Corn Overview

The Syngenta lawsuits stem from what U.S. farmers claim was a premature sale of genetically modified (GMO) corn seeds. Syngenta’s push to have farmers buy the GMO corn seed allegedly cost the corn industry $5 billion when China rejected the GMO corn. Syngenta marketed the GMO corn seed, called Viptera, with claims that it had a better defense against common corn pests like black cutworms and earworms.

U.S. farmers claim they bought the engineered corn seed based on Syngenta’s misleading promises that China’s approval was impending. At the time Syngenta was pushing the Viptera corn seed, China was the third largest importer of U.S. corn. When China decided to boycott the GMO corn for an entire year, it caused farmers, corn exporters and corn brokers to lose billions of dollars. 

Syngenta Lawsuits

Plaintiffs claim Syngenta used unfair tactics to sell their GMO corn seeds to farmers, knowing that if China rejected the product there would be a high financial loss for the U.S. corn industry. Before the rejection, China typically imported 2.5 million tons of corn from the United States each year. When the country decided to ban all U.S. corn, sales plummeted around the world. The China rejection lowered the demand for U.S. corn and even farmers who didn’t use the GMO corn seeds experienced a financial loss.

Farmers, corn exporters, and corn brokers claim that had they known that China might reject the Viptera corn, they would have never purchased the GMO corn seeds. Plaintiffs claim that had Syngenta not misled consumers about the GMO seeds, they could have avoided the loss of billions of dollars.

Syngenta officials have responded to the mounting number of Viptera lawsuits by claiming that crop producers should take ownership for the financial risks involved. U.S. farmers reject that claim, claiming that Syngenta’s misleading and fraudulent action was the direct cause of their financial loss.

The first Syngenta corn trials are expected to begin late 2016.

If you are a farmer, corn exporter, or corn broker who experienced financial loss due to China’s GMO corn ban, you may be able to file a claim. Every state has a statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit, ranging from two to four years, so if you have suffered harm do not delay.