In recent farm industry news, a farmer from South Dakota is bringing a claim against Syngenta, based on the alleged effects of Syngenta’s Viptera corn on the U.S. corn markets.
Plaintiff Allan K. is filed the Syngenta corn lawsuit on behalf of himself and that of his business, ARP Farms Inc. ARP is a South Dakota-based corn production business.
In April 2010, Syngenta secured approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a genetically modified corn trait known as MIR162. Syngenta had developed MIR162 corn to be resistant to a broad spectrum of corn-eating pests.
The first type of corn to be released onto the corn markets with the MIR162 trait was known as Agrisure Viptera. Syngenta released Viptera in time for the 2011 growing season.
At the time of Viptera’s release into the U.S. corn markets, several countries including China had not yet approved the MIR162 trait for import. China, Allan says, has maintained a “zero tolerance” policy regarding contamination of imported corn with MIR162 corn, and, as Allan explains in his Syngenta corn lawsuit, it’s natural in corn markets for one type of corn to quickly intermingle with other corn throughout the market.
In November 2013, while Syngenta’s application for Chinese import approval was still pending, Chinese officials discovered trace amounts of Viptera corn in a shipment of U.S. corn. In response, the Chinese government announced it would begin testing all shipments for MIR162 at the ports.
After that announcement, Allan says, Chinese imports of U.S. corn dropped by an estimated 85 percent. Around the time of the Chinese rejection, farm industry news reflected a finding by the National Grain and Feed Association that projected a $1.14 billion loss to corn markets during the nine months ending with August 2014.
Part of Allan’s argument against Syngenta is that the company assured corn production and handling businesses that Chinese approval of MIR162 was imminent, when in fact that approval was still months or years away.
Syngenta distributed a “Plant with Confidence” fact sheet encouraging planters to plant Viptera corn despite the lack of Chinese import approval, according to Allan. He also says corn planters relied on those statements when they bought Viptera corn to plant.
Allan also says Syngenta encouraged a side-by-side corn production process that practically guaranteed Viptera corn would intermingle with other types of corn. Allan argues that Syngenta knew or should have known that this intermingling of different types of corn would cause Viptera to find its way into shipments of U.S. corn destined for China, and that China would respond by rejecting shipments of U.S. corn.
The Syngenta Corn Lawsuit is Case No. 1:16-CV-01004-CBK, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota.
Other Syngenta Corn Lawsuits
Farm industry news has been full of stories of Syngenta corn lawsuits like Allan’s. Thousands of corn industry members have brought claims against Syngenta, from individual farmers to agricultural giants like Cargill Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland.
In a Kansas federal court, several of these claims have been consolidated into a single multidistrict litigation in the hopes of making pretrial procedures more efficient. Forty-eight of those Syngenta lawsuits were selected last November to be the first cases to go to trial.
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