By JIM RUTLEDGE

D.C. Correspondent

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tens of thousands of farmers, grain handlers and ethanol plant operators will share a $1.5 billion settlement from a lawsuit involving the Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta AG, over its introduction of a genetically modified (GMO) corn seed.

The attorneys who filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs believe it to be the largest agricultural litigation settlement in U.S. history.

The settlement was reached in September 2017, but the details were announced last week in a class action lawsuit filed in Kansas federal court, over Syngenta’s GMO Agrisure Viptera corn seed containing the MIR162 trait that had been comingled with the rest of the nation’s corn crop.

Farmers contend in the 2014 lawsuit that by releasing the corn seed variety before it was approved for export to China, Syngenta “destroyed the export of U.S. corn to China and caused depressed prices for all domestic corn.”

The settlement covers all U.S. corn producers – farmers and crop share landlords – as well as grain handling facilities and ethanol plants nationwide that sold corn priced after Sept. 15, 2013.

By one estimate, farmers and the agribusinesses could receive as much as $100 per 1,000 bushels of corn produced annually from the 2013-14 crop through 2017-18, according to one attorney familiar with such cases, Donald Swanson of Omaha. He authored a column for the ag law department at Iowa State University and reported his findings on calculations by two agricultural economists, Bruce Babcock of ISU and Colin Carter of the University of California-Davis.

The National Grain and Feed Assoc. estimates China’s refusal of U.S. corn imports reduced corn prices by 11 cents per bushel, driving down corn prices to a five-year low for a loss of 20-30 cents a bushel.

Thousands of farmers and other companies who do not even use the GMO corn claimed they too were harmed by Syngenta’s “widespread contamination of the U.S. corn and corn seed supply with MIR162, which will continue to foreclose the U.S. export market to China in future years and will continue to lead to lower corn prices per bushel in the U.S. Market, as a result,” according to the lawsuit.

In its defense, Syngenta claimed that it was market forces, not China’s failure to approve the corn, that led to the drop in corn prices. Iowa farmers had claimed the release of the Viptera seeds led to an 85 percent drop in Chinese imports of U.S. corn.

The settlement must be approved by U.S. District Judge John W. Lungstrum for the District of Kansas. If approved, the settlement terms and claims process will be sent in notices to the members of the lawsuit and published in various media outlets across the country, as well as on a special website set up by the attorneys representing the plaintiffs at www.syngentacornlitigation.com

Claimants will then have a period of time to submit a claim form, opt out of the settlement or object to the terms of the agreement. Farmers and the businesses could receive their funds during the first half of 2019, if the settlement is approved.

“America’s corn farmers and related businesses were hurt economically and this settlement will provide fair compensation for their damages,” attorneys for the farmers said. “It is an equitable result for all involved.”

A spokesman for Syngenta, Paul Minehart, said the preliminary settlement did not “constitute an admission by either side concerning merits of the parties’ allegations for their damages.” The settlement also does not include exporters such as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland that are also suing Syngenta.

The farmers and agribusinesses are being represented by four lawyers: William Chaney of Gray Reed and McGraw LLP, Patrick Stueve of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP; Don Downing of Grey, Ritter & Graham P.C. and Scott Powell of Hare Wynn Newell & Newton.