Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney at Schroeder Law LLC in Putnam County. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at Lee@LeeSchroeder.com or at 419-659-2058. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.
In 2013, a decision over genetically modified organisms, known as “GMO,” caused a significant decrease in the price of corn in America’s markets. Two varieties of genetically modified seed corn created by the company Syngenta led to a stoppage on all U.S. corn exports to China, one of the biggest buyers of American farm crops.
China deemed the GMO products unsafe after Syngenta entered them into the market. Since GMO and non-GMO plants can cross pollinate, China decided that all American corn was suspect.
Now, U.S. corn farmers who were not Syngenta customers could be represented collectively in a class action lawsuit. Many attorneys are trying to get in on the action and convince producers to hire them and prove their own damages.
Farmers are receiving lots of free steak dinners, hats, shirts, jackets and office supplies from out-of-town attorneys these days.
The situation centers around a company called Syngenta and the status of genetically modified crops around the world.
Read more about the class-action lawsuit in Lee’s article for the Lima News, “Legal-Ease: Lawyers showing farmers lots of love over corn class action lawsuit.”
Source: LimaOhio.com, “Legal-Ease: Lawyers showing farmers lots of love over corn class action lawsuit,” by Lee R. Schroeder, February 18, 2017.