US Farmers Reach $110 Million StarLink Settlement

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US Farmers Reach $110 Million StarLink Settlement

By K.T. Arasu

 

CHICAGO (Reuters) -- A group of U.S. farmers reached a $110 million

settlement in a class-action lawsuit against two companies that

engineered and marketed unapproved genetically modified StarLink

corn

 

that slipped into the U.S. food chain more than two years ago,

lawyers said on Thursday.

 

StarLink Logistics and Advanta USA agreed to pay $110 million plus

interest to farmers whose crops were tainted with StarLink corn, or

who suffered from a drop in corn prices due to the controversy over

gene-spliced StarLink corn.

 

Melvyn Weiss of the law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach

LLP said the preliminary settlement was approved on Wednesday by

Judge James Moran of the U.S. District Court for the Northern

District of Illinois. It still needs final approval.

 

A source familiar with the case said a hearing date for final

approval has been set for April 7. " It's basically to see if anyone

objects to the settlement, " he said, adding that non-StarLink

farmers whose incomes were affected could file a claim for a portion

of the settlement.

 

" This agreement represents an outstanding result in a difficult and

hard-fought litigation, " said Weiss, who represents the farmers. He

declined to elaborate.

 

StarLink corn is not approved for human consumption for fear it

could cause allergic reactions. Japan, the top U.S. corn importer,

bans StarLink corn for animal feed as well.

 

StarLink corn -- spliced with a gene that is deadly to the corn

borer pest that causes millions of dollars' worth of damage to the

U.S. corn crop -- was planted in less than 10,000 acres when

introduced in the United States in 1998.

 

StarLink plantings grew to 315,000 acres in 2000 but still

constituted less than 1 percent of total U.S. corn seedings.

Plantings of StarLink were halted in the 2001 season.

 

Traces of StarLink corn were detected in taco shells in September

2000, leading to a series of recalls of corn-based products from

grocery shelves across the country.

 

StarLink corn was also discovered in food products in Japan,

spurring a sharp decline in the country's purchase of American corn

supplies. The move triggered steep falls in the prices of U.S. corn.

 

The plaintiffs in the StarLink case claimed they had suffered

financially from a drop in corn prices due to StarLink's detection

in food products and the subsequent fall in exports, especially to

Japan.

 

Some had also claimed that their non-StarLink corn crops were

tainted by the variety grown in neighboring fields.

 

A spokeswoman for StarLink Logistics confirmed the deal. " We are

pleased to have reached this agreement, which puts much of the

liability issues behind us. "

 

A spokesman for Advanta USA, which marketed StarLink seeds to

farmers, could not be reached for comment.