New Delhi (CNN Business) PepsiCo has backed down from a controversial fight with Indian farmers it accused of illegally growing its registered potatoes. The company is withdrawing a lawsuit it filed last month against four small Indian farmers for growing a potato variety it had registered for exclusive use in Lays potato chips. “After discussions with the [Indian] government, the company has …
A Minnesota judge will let some farmers seek punitive damages against the Syngenta seed company for selling genetically modified corn seeds before China approved imports of crops grown from them. In an order unsealed Tuesday, Hennepin County District Judge Thomas Sipkins wrote that there’s evidence Syngenta knew the risks of commercializing Viptera and Duracade corn containing a trait that …
Monsanto has been served with a second lawsuit over the off-label dicamba drift damage that occurred in 10 states in 2016. The new case, a class action suit filed in U.S. District Court in Missouri, has two farmers from that state as lead plaintiffs. The lawsuit was filed by Randles and Splittgerber, LLP, a Missouri-based legal firm that also sued Monsanto over dicamba drift in November 2016 on …
Five different chicken companies face a class action suit from five farmers in as many states claiming that the companies’ systems treated them like indentured servants. Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue Farms, Koch Foods and Sanderson Farms are all accused of fixing compensation for farmers, some of whom are tens of thousands of dollars in debt, according to the Associated Press. While the …
A group of U.S. chicken farmers sued the country’s biggest poultry processors, including Tyson Foods Inc, for allegedly conspiring to depress their pay, the latest accusation of improper collusion in the sector. Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride Co, Sanderson Farms Inc and other companies illegally agreed to share detailed data on grower pay with one another to keep …
According to a statement from Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, the group is settling the suit to put the issue behind them and move on to other issues. “It is important to note that the court has found no antitrust violation and CWT makes no admission of wrongdoing in this settlement. The activity at issue in this litigation — the herd …
A class-action lawsuit against Syngenta regarding rejected exports is likely to head to trial next year, as scheduled. Online publication Agri-Pulse reports the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to review a lower court’s certification order, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. Syngenta called the appeals court ruling “one step in a long process.” Multiple classes of farmers within the lawsuit …
Federal regulators might have green-lighted the $44 billion acquisition of Syngenta AG (SYT) by China National Chemical Corp., but Syngenta still has unsettled business to tend to. Notably, its rocky relationship with farmers. According to a recent court filing, a U.S. district court judge in Kansas ruled that the numerous lawsuits brought against Syngenta by U.S. farmers over sales of biotech …
Residents of New Hampshire, 14 other states and the District of Columbia can now file a claim for part of a $52 million dairy anti-trust settlement. The settlement was reached earlier this month in a federal class-action lawsuit alleging that National Milk Producers Federation, through its voluntary farmer-funded national program, Cooperatives Working Together, artificially limited raw milk …
The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) and the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) have offered to underwrite the legal costs for the defense of the drainage districts targeted in the Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) lawsuit. Leaders of the utility claim officials in Buena Vista, Calhoun and Sac Counties have failed to adequately manage 10 drainage districts in their area, causing nitrate levels …