Suit: Black farmers sold defective seeds
Says firm targeted African-Americans
Black farmers, whose numbers already have dwindled precipitously over the past century, face new hardships after suffering poor yields last year because they were sold “fake” soybean seeds marketed at a Memphis trade show, members of a group representing African-American growers said Tuesday.
Leaders of the Memphis-based Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association have filed a class-action lawsuit against Stine Seed Co., the nation’s largest independent seed-producer, accusing the Adele, Iowa, firm of targeting African-Americans for sales of defective seeds.
The suit alleges that black farmers who attended the 67th Annual MidSouth Farm & Gin Show at the Memphis Cook Convention Center in March of last year bought more than $100,000 worth of Stine seeds. But the “certified” seeds the growers had paid for were switched with inferior ones at a warehouse near Sledge, Mississippi, according to the suit.
The lawsuit is the latest action by the BFAA, which also has represented some of the African-American farmers claiming widespread discriminatory practices against by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Following an initial class-action lawsuit against USDA, nearly 16,000 growers had collected settlements totaling $1.06 billion by 2011. Congress has ap-
propriated $1.2 billion to pay for a second wave of settlements.
BFAA President Thomas Burrell said at a news conference Tuesday that the number of black farmers has dropped from nearly 1 million in 1920 to about 5,000 today largely as a result of “systemic racism.” The low yields resulting from the “fake” seeds could drive more minority growers out of business, he said.
“What we are saying today is that the few remaining black farmers, who have survived drought, who have survived tariffs, who have survived all kinds of natural disasters ... are now finding themselves having to deal with the government of systemic racism by not only the Department of Agriculture, but now seed-manufacturers, seed-breeders, chemical manufacturers who now are weaponizing and have weaponized their seeds and are targeting those seeds ... toward the operations of the remaining black farmers,” Burrell said.
Farmers using the seeds reported yields that were only half those from other varieties, according to the suit. At the news conference, BFAA officials distributed laboratory results from Mississippi State University showing that none of the farmers’ seeds that had been submitted for testing germinated.
By early afternoon, Stine had not responded to requests for comments regarding the lawsuit.
Reach Tom Charlier at thomas.charlier@commercialappeal.com or 901529-2572 and on Twitter at @thomasrcharlier.