black farmers were sold fake crop seeds to drive them into bankruptcy

JosephDredd

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http://m.wmcactionnews5.com/story/3...nally-sold-fake-seeds-in-memphis-lawsuit-says

Black farmers were intentionally sold fake seeds in Memphis, lawsuit says

Mid-South farmers filed a lawsuit against a company that they said sold them fake soybean seeds at a convention.

A group of African-American farmers from Louisiana and the Mid-South, say that Stine Seed Company purposefully switched seeds in order to sell black farmers a subpar product at the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show in March 2017.

Despite above average rainfall, experienced black farmers saw limited soybean yield from the Stine seeds during the 2017 harvest.

"Mother nature doesn't discriminate," President of Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association Thomas Burrell said. "It doesn't rain on white farms but not black farms. Insects don't [only] attack black farmers' land...why is it then that white farmers are buying Stine seed and their yield is 60, 70, 80, and 100 bushels of soybeans and black farmers who are using the exact same equipment with the exact same land, all of a sudden, your seeds are coming up 5, 6, and 7 bushels?"

After losing millions of dollars, the farmers took the seeds to experts at Mississippi State University to have them tested. They say the tests show the seeds sold to the black farmers were not certified Stine seeds.


The black farmers said the distributor working for Stine Seed Company used labeled certified seed backs--tampering with factory sewn seals, in order to remove the certified seeds. The distributor would then sell the fake certified seeds to black farmers at a high price.

The farmers bought more than $100,000 in soybean seeds from the distributor, plus an additional $100,000 purchase in chemicals.

As for a motive, Burrell said farming is a very competitive industry and unscrupulous people see black farmers as easy prey. He said by hurting those farmers' bottom line, someone else would be able to swoop in and buy up the land that belongs to black farmers.

"All we have to do is look at here: 80 years ago you had a million black farmers, today you have less than 5,000. These individuals didn't buy 16 million acres of land, just to let is lay idle. The sons and daughters, the heirs of black farmers want to farm, just like the sons and daughters of white farmers. So we have to acknowledge that racism is the motivation here."

The farmers filed a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee Western Division in Memphis on April 19, 2018 against Stine Seed Company of the largest genetic seed trait manufacturer in the world.

Tennessee Rep. G.A. Hardaway said he will push the state government to investigate these allegations.

"We will explore the avenues--whether its civil, whether it's criminal--dealing with fraud. Those issues which have negatively impacted our black farmers, those who are in the chain of commerce in agriculture, we'll be looking at how the state of Tennessee can protect the interests of those citizens," Hardaway said.

Stine Seed Company President Myron Stine issued the following statement addressing the lawsuit and the allegations his company intentionally sold bad seeds to black farmers:

“The lawsuit against Stine Seed Company is without merit and factually unsupportable. Stine takes seriously any allegations of unlawful, improper, or discriminatory conduct and is disturbed by the baseless allegations leveled against the company. Upon learning of these claims, the company took swift action to conduct an internal investigation, which has not revealed any evidence that would support these allegations. Stine intends to vigorously defend itself against this meritless lawsuit and has filed a motion to dismiss. Our focus is on continuing to serve all our customers with the highest degree of integrity and respect that are the bedrock of our company’s values.”

I'll just get this out of the way early, so you-know-who doesn't need to pop in with his usual contribution: "The black farmers were probably just burglars anyways. No big deal."

So anyways, yeah, this is fucking appalling. I hope it's not true for a number of reasons, but mainly because there's probably not going to be any sort of real justice done against a major agriculture company in a farm state.
 
But but racism doesnt exist in the usa except against white people!
 
Those darkies should be happy the white man sold them anything at all!
 
Note this is in Memphis where 2/3rds of the people are black.
 
Those darkies should be happy the white man sold them anything at all!
Bro they clearly don't know how to farm....I mean they are coming up with 5, 6, 7 bushels of soybeans while whites are coming up with 60 - 100.

This is capatalism at its finest....Only the best survive!

MAGA!
 
Sounds like a silly conspiracy theory like the CIA bringing in crack.
 
Smells like bullshit. What is the motivation for the seed seller to give a paying customer garbage seeds? Makes no business sense.
 
If true, the Stine Seed Co should be forced to pay big. Also, if true, seems like a conspiracy, so I'd like to see who else is involved.
 
Damn, that's fucked up. These people lost their livelihood over this shit.
 
Smells like bullshit. What is the motivation for the seed seller to give a paying customer garbage seeds? Makes no business sense.
The only way it makes sense is if they are in cahoots with someone who wants the land.
 
How many times have you been outraged this week, TS?

Do you keep count?
 
Sounds like a silly conspiracy theory like the CIA bringing in crack.
Yes, racism seems so far fetched and absurd that it must be a loony conspiracy theory.
 
The only way it makes sense is if they are in cahoots with someone who wants the land.

They want to sell quality seeds to everyone who farms the land, no matter their race. That is the business model. Not racism. Or they would be out of business.

Oh, and this thread is going places.
 
They want to sell quality seeds to everyone who farms the land, no matter their race. That is the business model. Not racism. Or they would be out of business.

Oh, and this thread is going places.

Interesting, because no company has ever had employees sell fake or watered down versions of a product in order to pocket profits for themselves. And it's certainly out of the question that a thief and embezzler might be racist, too.
 
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