Syngenta GMO Corn Lawsuits Organized Into MDL
GMO Corn manufacturer Syngenta faces around 360 Syngenta GMO Corn Lawsuits alleging financial loss by farmers and grain exporters all over the US; additional GMO corn lawsuits may be filed as the judge organizes a multidistrict litigation (MDL).
The GMO corn lawsuits center around Syngenta’s Viptera strain of GMO corn, which features the gene MIR 162. Syngenta developed the gene in 2009, and after receiving US approval for human consumption, began to market the Agrisure Viptera corn to farmers in the US. However, the United States is not the largest consumer of US-grown corn – in fact, China is the largest importer of US-grown corn in the world. In 2011, when Syngenta began selling Vitpera corn seeds to US farmers, the company said it was working with China to get the MIR 162 gene approved for human consumption. However, by September 2014, China had still not approved the gene for human consumption. The country reportedly found Viptera corn mixed with a shipment of other types of corn into the country, and Chinese regulators began rejecting all US corn shipments. US farmers, from small businesses to large industrial farms, as well as major grain exporters like Cargill, lost billions of dollars when China rejected corn shipments.
So they began to file Syngenta GMO corn lawsuits seeking recovery for their financial losses.
Now, the GMO corn manufacturer faces potentially thousands of lawsuits involving corn farmers from Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, and South Carolina, just to name a few.
“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,” according to a lawsuit filed Jan. 13 in federal court in Iowa by Thomas Land and Livestock Corp., a business in east-central Iowa.
Syngenta, however, denies that it acted irresponsibly toward US farmers.
“Syngenta has done what a good company should do. We developed a superior product that helps farmers; we applied for and received government approvals from the U.S. and major export markets at the time; and we submitted an import application to the Chinese government that was timely, accurate and complete,” spokesman Paul Minehart said in a statement.
Although China did finally approve human consumption of Syngenta’s Viptera corn, farmers and grain exporters still lost money while crops rotted on the docks, waiting for approval.
“The approval is not the end because markets haven’t fully recovered. Obviously that helps, but even though China is now accepting Viptera it has not restored its important levels to pre-ban,” a plaintiff’s attorney said. “We’ll have to see where it goes from here but it certainly does help put a cap on it and hopefully at some point here the markets recover.”
The Strom Law Firm Pursues Claims on Behalf Of South Carolina’s Corn Farmers Against Syngenta
If you or someone you love grew, harvested, and sold non- MIR 162 corn on a commercial basis, or if you received revenue from non-MIR 162 corn under a crop-share arrangement from November 2013 to now, you may be eligible to participate in a class action seeking to recover compensation for lost profits from Syngenta. The Syngenta Corn Lawsuit attorneys at the Strom Law Firm, LLC offer a free consultation and flexible appointment times. Do not wait until it’s too late. Contact us today. 803.252.4800
