September 28, 2017
Nashville, TN (RFD-TV) This past Tuesday Syngenta announced it had agreed to settle tens of thousands of U.S. lawsuits by farmers over the company’s rollout of the Viptera seed variety. This settlement offers $1.4 billion to U.S. farmers affected by the seed variety’s alleged premature release.
This issue began in 2011 when Syngenta released the Viptera seed after approval from the U.S. government. However, China did not approve Viptera until December of 2014, causing a three-year trade gap in an increasingly important export market. Farmers across North America credit this trade gap to corn market prices dropping and Chinese markets finding other corn markets to meet their import demands.
This proposed settlement is not a statement of admission on either side. Paul Minehart, Syngenta’s Head of North American corporate communications, stated, “Syngenta firmly maintains that its actions were appropriate and continues to believe that American farmers should have access to the latest U.S.-approved technologies to help them increase their productivity and crop yield.”
This settlement only applies to U.S. farmers and does not apply to exporters such as Cargill and ADM or to any Canadian farmers, all of whom have lawsuits against Syngenta that are still pending.
Watch the video above to see what Todd Janzen, President of Janzen Agricultural Law LLC, has to say about the settlement.