JUDA - Area corn farmers may have been affected by the unlawful introduction of a genetically-modified brand of the crop and are entitled to damages, a lawsuit by a group of law firms across the Midwest claim.
On July 22 at 5 p.m., Jeff Link Law Firm attorney Annie Harden will be speaking at the Juda community center about Syngenta Ag, an international Swiss biotechnology agribusiness. The suit says the company released a GMO version of corn seed to the market before it was approved, causing ripple effects throughout the international agriculture market.
Chris Applegate, who works for the Jeff Link Law Firm in Des Moines, said the issue "concerns anyone who grew corn between 2011 to 2015." According to the group of 24 law firms from six separate states, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Texas, there have already been roughly 2,000 meetings across the country.
The group contends that in 2009, Syngenta released the new strain of corn seed into the United States before import approval from China was received. China then destroyed an unspecified number of shipments of corn from the U.S. By the end of 2013, more than 545,000 tons of corn from the U.S. had been rejected by China, one of the largest corn importers in the world. In total, 3.3 million metric tons of corn grown in the U.S. were rejected globally.
Syngenta Ag has responded to the lawsuit from the beginning by arguing that the company was transparent in its marketing of the GMO corn. However, companies and farmers' lawyers have said they were misled with a statement that indicated the corn would be approved quickly, while it took three months for China to approve the crops, resulting in the tons of corn being destroyed.
In a press release drafted on July 5, Midwest Corn Lawsuit and Iowa Corn Lawsuit stated the strain, Agrisure Viptera, was rejected by China in 2013 and 2014, "causing global collapse in U.S. corn prices.
"The export market disruptions with China cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars," the release said. "All U.S. corn growers, regardless of whether or not they planted Syngenta seed, were impacted by this market disruption."
The release also encourages all local corn growers to attend, and to possibly join the more than 45,000 corn farmers who have already filed suit throughout the country.
On July 22 at 5 p.m., Jeff Link Law Firm attorney Annie Harden will be speaking at the Juda community center about Syngenta Ag, an international Swiss biotechnology agribusiness. The suit says the company released a GMO version of corn seed to the market before it was approved, causing ripple effects throughout the international agriculture market.
Chris Applegate, who works for the Jeff Link Law Firm in Des Moines, said the issue "concerns anyone who grew corn between 2011 to 2015." According to the group of 24 law firms from six separate states, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Texas, there have already been roughly 2,000 meetings across the country.
The group contends that in 2009, Syngenta released the new strain of corn seed into the United States before import approval from China was received. China then destroyed an unspecified number of shipments of corn from the U.S. By the end of 2013, more than 545,000 tons of corn from the U.S. had been rejected by China, one of the largest corn importers in the world. In total, 3.3 million metric tons of corn grown in the U.S. were rejected globally.
Syngenta Ag has responded to the lawsuit from the beginning by arguing that the company was transparent in its marketing of the GMO corn. However, companies and farmers' lawyers have said they were misled with a statement that indicated the corn would be approved quickly, while it took three months for China to approve the crops, resulting in the tons of corn being destroyed.
In a press release drafted on July 5, Midwest Corn Lawsuit and Iowa Corn Lawsuit stated the strain, Agrisure Viptera, was rejected by China in 2013 and 2014, "causing global collapse in U.S. corn prices.
"The export market disruptions with China cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars," the release said. "All U.S. corn growers, regardless of whether or not they planted Syngenta seed, were impacted by this market disruption."
The release also encourages all local corn growers to attend, and to possibly join the more than 45,000 corn farmers who have already filed suit throughout the country.