- 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
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- that slipped into the U.S. food chain more than two years
ago, lawyers said on Thursday.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "This agreement represents an outstanding result
in a difficult and hard-fought litigation," said Weiss, who represents
the farmers. He declined to elaborate.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Some had also claimed that their non-StarLink corn crops
were tainted by the variety grown in neighboring fields.
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- 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."
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- A spokesman for Advanta USA, which marketed StarLink
seeds to farmers, could not be reached for comment.
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