A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Illinois against all of the major farm input suppliers in the United States.
They have responded by declining comment while the lawsuit is in the courts, by saying they are compliant with all laws and regulations or by declining comment.
The class-action lawsuits need the name of one complainant and in this case it’s Barbara Piper, the executor of the estate of her husband, Michael Piper, who died in 2017.
He grew row crops at Mount Vernon, Ill.
Claims include: “The existing distribution process maintains supracompetitive crop input prices by denying farmers accurate product information, including pricing information.”
The complaint names as defendants:
- Bayer Cropscience
- Corteva
- BASF Corporation
- Syngenta Corporation
- Cargill Incorporated
- Winfield Solutions
- Univar Solutions
- Federated Co-Operatives Limited
- CHS Inc.
- Nutrien Ag Solutions
- Growmark Inc.
- Simplot
- Tenkoz
The complaint gives as an example Piper’s purchase of Liberty herbicide from Gateway FS, a retail outlet of Growmark.
One should be surprised that co-operatives, which should be farmers' friends, are included on the list. But I'm not surprised and I expect you're not either.
Piper is seeking a trial by jury.
