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THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE 1 November 2004
Dear friends and colleagues, RE: FARMERS US$11 MILLION STARLINK SETTLEMENT A group of about 8000 farmers in Nebraska will receive up to US$11 million as part of the settlement for damage caused by Starlink corn to the market prices resulting in great losses to farmers who grew non-Starlink corn. This brings the total court settlement to date to $121 million. Last year farmers in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and other states were awarded payments from a total settlement of $110 million when they took a class-action lawsuit against StarLink Logistics Inc. and Advanta USA Inc. StarLink, developed by Aventis, was a corn gene approved for feed use, but not for human consumption. When StarLink was discovered in food, the resulting loss of international markets for corn penalized U.S. producers who did not plant StarLink corn by adversely affecting both markets and price.
With best wishes, Lim
Li Lin and Chee Yoke Heong Email: twnet@po.jaring.my Website: www.twnside.org.sg
REF: Doc.TWN/Biosafety/2004/I Seed-corn lawsuit payments to be issued soon By Art Hovey, Lincoln Journal Star, USA, http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/10/26/local/doc417edd62a3f4513134818.txt 26 Oct 2004 Seed-corn lawsuit payments to be issued soon More than 8,000 Nebraska corn producers will share in an $11 million settlement of a seed-corn lawsuit. Payments for the damage StarLink seed corn did to market prices will be issued in the form of Visa debit cards and should be in the mail in the next two weeks, Don Hutchens of the Nebraska Corn Board said Tuesday. Farmers should receive payment notifications sometime this week. He cautioned them to not mistake the first Visa mailing as a credit-card promotion. “We want to make sure they open this up and that they read it,” he said, “because it will have the amount of acres approved for their claim and the total amount of dollars they will receive from a Visa debit card.” The lawsuit arose from events that started to take shape in 1998. That’s when Aventis CropScience began selling genetically modified StarLink seed corn that was federally approved for feed use, but not for human use. Emotions and attorneys were set in motion when StarLink got mixed with corn intended for tortilla shells, corn chips and other food products. Some also expressed concern that StarLink’s unconventional genetic makeup could trigger allergic reactions in people. All of the estimated 25,000 corn farmers in Nebraska could have filed claims, but only about 8,000 did. That puts the average claim payment at about $1,235. Farmers in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and other states are also awaiting payments from a total settlement of $110 million. “Our frustration originally was with the Environmental Protection Agency,” Hutchens said. “They never should have approved the planting of StarLink under a split approval, where it was approved for feed, but not for food and under a zero-tolerance umbrella.” Zero tolerance means there were no allowances whatsoever made for contamination. “This is a sizable amount of money,” Hutchens said. “And where it’s not a huge amount per acre, it will have a very positive impact on the Nebraska rural economy—because, at a minimum, it will flow through rural economies two-and-a-half times.” The Corn Board became a force in StarLink matters early last year when its staff fielded hundreds of calls from producers and helped them initiate claims. Attorney General Jon Bruning’s staff was also involved in researching claims potential from a class-action suit. Six years after the first StarLink corn was planted, the state’s grain handlers are still dealing with the aftermath. “At one mill, we’re still testing for it,” said Gordon Ganz of Alvo Grain, “and it’s still costing us a half hour a load today” to do those tests. Ganz doesn’t expect that extra overhead to be written off either. “We’re just keeping track of time,” he said. “And when we get done, we’ll send them a bill.”
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