This afternoon, Putnam Circuit Court Judge Derek Swope granted preliminary approval to comprehensive settlements agreed to by  Monsanto company and the Calwell Practice PLLC that resolve all claims in all pending litigation as well as all class actions filed in West Virginia. The litigation, including the pending class action suits relate specifically to a chemical plant once located in Nitro, West Virginia and activities which took place 40 to 60 years ago.

“These settlements ensure that both individual and community concerns are addressed, and services are made available for the people of Nitro,” said Scott Partridge, vice president of Monsanto company. ”We are pleased to resolve this matter and end any concerns about historic operations at the Nitro plant.”

“The settlements provide needed medical benefits and remediation services to the people of Nitro and broader community,” said Class Counsel Stuart Calwell of the Calwell Practice. “The principal goal of the litigation was to provide long-term medical monitoring and to provide professional cleaning of individual homes.”

These resolutions provide for eligible class members in the Nitro community to have their health monitored and to have their houses professionally cleaned. Approximately 4,500 homes are located in areas where individual remediation of homes may be desirable.  A program will be created to offer free professional cleaning of these homes and provide funding of up to $9 million dollars for this purpose.

The parties have agreed that a thirty-year medical monitoring program will be established at a local hospital. Thousands of persons who lived, worked, or attended school in the Nitro area during the period of time covered by the lawsuit will be eligible to apply for benefits.  The plan will be supported by a primary fund of $21 million dollars which will pay for medical testing of eligible class members.

Up to $63 million dollars in additional funding will be available over the thirty-year life of the medical screening program. In addition to the direct benefits these agreements will provide to the residents of the Nitro area, Monsanto has agreed to pay Court approved legal fees and litigation costs incurred by Class Counsel over the last seven years.

The class action resolutions will now be fully reviewed by Circuit Judge Derek Swope to ensure the fairness of the class action settlement agreements.

Monsanto noted that this settlement will allow it to maintain its focus on its global agriculture business and its commitment of investing in improved seed products for farmers throughout the world. Monsanto indicated that, for fiscal year 2012, the settlement will not affect ongoing earnings per share but the one time expense will reduce as reported earnings per share by approximately $0.05.

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On Tuesday, January 24 at 1:30 PM , Monsanto officers and shareholders will vote on a shareholder proposal to create a study of “material financial risks or operational impacts” associated with its chemical products and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The proposal represents one of the strongest signals to date that the biotech food conglomerate is facing growing consumer, legal, and regulatory uncertainties. As of today, however, Monsanto has told John Harrington that they will not recognize his proxy who would speak on behalf of the resolution for only three minutes under normal circumstances.

The meeting itself is only open to shareholders but concerned citizens will be demonstrating outside the northeast entrance to Monsanto’s Lindberg campus beginning at 12:00 noon. Monsanto Headquarters is located at 800 North Lindberg Boulevard in St. Louis, MO.

Adam Eidinger, an organic food activist who recently led a walk from NY to Washington DC on behalf of honest food-labeling, will present the shareholder resolution on behalf of Napa, California based Harrington Investments (HII) with help from the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA).

Eidinger will be available for interview before and after the shareholder meeting, to which he will drive a “Label GMO” art car to attend. Representatives from HII and PANNA will be available also for interview before and after the shareholder meeting. Eidinger’s written testimony is available by request.

In its statement recommending shareholders to vote against the HII resolution, Monsanto management stated that, “Farmers should have the freedom to choose which production method is best suited for their needs, whether organic, non-GM conventional or biotechnology traits. All of these systems can and do work effectively side by side…”

John Harrington, CEO of Harrington Investments questions the veracity of Monsanto’s statement: “While I am heartened by Monsanto’s sudden concern for the freedom of farmers, the unfortunate reality facing American farmers right now is that genetic drift from GMO crops is contaminating their conventional and organic crops.

This can be disastrous because many GMO crops cannot be sold to important markets, such as Europe, China and Japan. The potential legal implications for Monsanto are staggering.”

Eidinger, who organized last October’s 100-person, 313-mile “Right2Know March” from New York City to the White House for federally mandated GMO food-labeling says: “With the rise of Round-Up resistant ‘superweeds’ the company is simply telling farmers to spray even more toxic herbicides including 2,4 D, the main ingredient in Agent Orange.

Many people are struggling to avoid GMOs and chemicals used on them in the food they eat due to serious health and environmental concerns yet Americans have no right to know what we are eating largely due to the close ties Monsanto has to President Obama’s USDA and FDA which has ignored more than 500,000 Americans who have signed on to the JustLabelIt.org petition to the FDA.”

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