Syngenta lawsuit, thanks but no thanks.

[BA Deere]

First of all, I believe Syngenta acted irresponsibly going all the way back to the "Starlink" debacle.  They are greedy and cut corners to get their product to market and doing that flops as many times as they hit a home run.  I don`t have much use for corporations other than the Meredith Corporation, FC Stone and Principle Financial 🙂

I went to a lawsuit mtg, passed a stack of bills on the kitchen table whose sum total is greater than the balance of my checkbook at this time and next year looks no better, so Lord knows we need the money.  but I just can`t look myself in the mirror and say that Syngenta`s viptera has caused me $10,000 in damages...I just can`t do that.  I know Sygent`s irresponsible selling of seed and misrepressentation created a fallguy for China to reject shipments of corn.  But, the man looking back at me in the mirror says China would`ve found another excuse if it wasn`t Syngenta.  i feel it was a marketing ploy because China eventually accepted Viptera this year.  It`s a "chicken and egg" thing, China wanted to weasel out of contracts of high priced corn, knowing it was on the way down in price and Syngenta was a easy excuse. China wanting to get out of contracts the chicken and Syngenta being the egg.

Anyway i got back from the meeting and the stack of bills were still on the table and the mailman had delivered even more bills.  I`ll make it some way and I could use $10,000, just not from Syngenta in this way.   In the future, you companies need to get this stuff approved BEFORE you sell....Do you hear me????  Don`t be putting yourselves in these spots! 

And those of you joining in the lawsuit, if you really feel Syngenta cost you $10,000 and a judge agrees with that, I`ll be jealous of your check and kicking myself that I didn`t sign on too, but for now i just don`t see where Syngenta owes me $10,000.

[idalivered]

BA, i've been trying to avoid this subject. I've always hoped that i could get thru this life without suing anyone or being sued. I will survive without the settlement. (i'm planning to win the powerball in the near future, anyway)

My question is why the big push for the law firms to sign up so many people?? Is there some type of incentive for each farmer they recruit??? Why can't the suit just proceed and send everyone planting over 10 acres of corn their "just rewards"? Sorting out who gets it can;' take any longer than all the recruitment period , does.

[tractor12]

I have not attended any meetings but have received several letters from the lawyers trying to sign u up. I was told by a friend that in the fine print , each one who signed up must pay a fee if syngenta looses the suit. Do your research before signing and good luck.

[BA Deere]

There are alot of different groups of lawyers with their farmers that are in this and each group is different.  Each one i`m sure has different fine print and the contingency fees can range from 33% to 40%.  so, yeah if someone is thinking of signing up it wouldn`t hurt to run it past their own lawyer first.

[BA Deere]

hey Ida, I think they would like to get the signatures of a big `shock and awe` number of farmers signed up early +30% and that would scare Syngenta into making a settlement before going to court. Syngenta would like this to be tried in federal court, but these trial lawyers are filing to have it tried in Hennepin County, Minnesota thinking they`ll have a better chance there. 

The lawyer giving the talk stressed that "it`s no risk to you, no expense, we just take 40% of what ever we win".  I asked about what happens if you lose and the judge throws it out and calls it frivilous, then Syngenta counter-sues?  He had a piece of paper that Syngenta promised that it "wouldn`t do that"....well I guess one can take that for what it`s worth.

It was a small micro group that showed up for this meeting, I told the friend I was with that I bet most local farmers attend meetings that are in different communities, so their neighbors don`t see what they`re up to  🙂   A couple of my friends signed up on the spot and that is fine they believe that Syngenta cost them money on the price of corn.  I disagree even though my yields were far from stellar last year everyone else is saying theirs was the "best ever", China and everyone saw that and those contracted to buy $7 corn sought ways to get out of buying it and Viptera was just a handy excuse.

These lawyers in my opinion are preying on farmers that are living pretty tight now, even though it`ll be next year when the settlement check would come in, I know I would use a $10,000 check this year or next year too.

I`m not a Syngenta fan by any stretch, but as litigious as society is to sue like this, I`m just afraid of Karma.

One of those in attendence was the cocky-doodle that brought down our local elevator with the HTA debacle...and he was more of a lawyer than the real attorney that was giving the talk, when he found out that he couldn`t hagle on the contingency fee of 40%, he was out of there. I kind of personally think that was my sign that I didn`t want to be involved.     🙂 

[Pat in CMO]

 I have said this many times. At the time Viptera was released it had all the approvals that any other trait (including any from Monsanto) had at the time of release. Only difference was China started importing more corn at about the same time. Growers who had ordered or already planted Viptera seed (I had one field) were notified that at harvest time it needed to be kept separate and fed on the farm or if delivered the elevator should be notified that it contained the trait so it could be kept out of the export market. When my Viptera corn was delivered elevator was informed it had the trait. From that point on I have my doubts it was handled any different than any other corn that was delivered. One other point. These lawyers are claiming 4 years of lower prices because of Viptera and China. From my memory China only rejected it for a little over one year.  Patrick

[BA Deere]

I think you have a good point Pat. Maybe some elevators handled it correctly while others didn`t. Perhaps a feedmill that had too much corn because of the PEDV deal just sold it into the system not aware and wanting to get rid of $6 corn before it dropped, could be alot of reasons.

I think Syngenta should get some kind of slap on the wrist, but i don`t know what good alot of this will do, sounds like Monsanto is ready to buy them...they`ll just buy `em cheaper, I suppose Monsanto wants to get this out of the way before they do much more bidding to see exactly what Syngenta will be left to bid on.

I think Monsanto is big enough and rather than buy Syngenta, the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt should actually break Monsanto up into about 3 different companies. 

[dennymal]

My thought on the subject-why not sign up for the lawsuit. It takes about 10 minutes and who knows we might get a cabellos card or something. I recieved a nice cabellos card with starlink, me and the boys enjoyed a lot of icefishing with the hut, heater and various equip it bought. As far as Sygenta putting a lawsuit on anyone that signs up-I highly doubt if they would ever bite the hand that feeds them

[Kay/NC]

You know, it really stymies me that seed companies make misrepresentations about their product, then expect farmers to fight the good fight with convincing consumers that the product is safe. I am not saying any of the crops are dangerous, but you have to look at it as an "if they will lie about anything, they will lie about everything" sort of situation.

If there is no other way to teach them to be more truthful, settling a mega-lawsuit for a mountain of money will at least be a slap on the wrist. Of course, you guys will all be paying back the $10,000 you get a few bucks at a time, in every seed sack you buy from now on.

[BA Deere]

Denny, how much per bushel do you think Syngenta owes us?  You hear from 20¢ to $1.00.  I really don`t know, but from what I understand after China rejected that corn, the demand was so great it found a home in one of the other countries over there.

If a Syngenta bigshot is reading this...okay you guys are running the risk of having to possibly send out a $10,000 check to each of 50,000 farmers or $5 billion + plus who knows how much in lawyers.  Now before the trial lawyers all get richer off of this, why not agree voluntarily to cost share expenses of putting in E-15 pumps in the east coast and west coast to build demand in those areas for Ethanol.  The time wasted and money wasted in court fighting each other is fruitless, Syngenta find away to do that and you`ll build demand for corn way into the future, it`ll bennefit your customers and good productive PR.   Otherwise the way this thing is going it`ll just being the lawyers ending up with a bigger McMansion.