Syngenta

 ( Official Website ) 

Syngenta brands include Actara (Thiamethoxam), Agrisure (corn with Viptera trait), Alto (Cyproconazole), Amistar (azoxystrobin), Avicta, Axial, Bicep II, Bravo, Callisto, Celest, Cruiser (TMX, Thiamethoxam), Dividend, Dual, Durivo, Elatus, Fusilade, Force, Golden Harvest, Gramoxone, Karate, Northrup-King (NK), Proclaim, Revus, Ridomil, Rogers, Score, Seguris, S&G, Tilt, Topik, Touchdown, Vertimec and Vibrance. In 2007, Queensland University in Australia contracted with Syngenta to research different inputs for biofuels as a renewable energy source.

Syngenta formed a political action committee (PAC) to process its U.S. lobbying, called Syngenta Corporation Employee PAC, or SyngentaPAC. The company stated it is an employee-funded organization for supporting U.S. lawmakers.

Syngenta's contributions to U.S. federal candidates, parties, and outside groups totaled $140,822 during the 2018 election cycle, ranking it 20th on the list of companies in its sector. Its lobbying expenditures in the U.S. during 2018 were $770,000, ranking it 7th in its sector. The company spent $1 million in U.S. federal lobbying in 2023.

Syngenta was the defendant in a class action lawsuit by the city of Greenville, Illinois concerning the adverse effects of atrazine on human water supplies. The suit was settled for $105 million in May 2012. City of Greenville v. Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc., and Syngenta AG Case No. 3:10-cv-00188-JPG-PMF, accessed 23 August 2013Clare Howard Special Report: Syngenta's campaign to protect atrazine, discredit critics. Environmental Health News, 17 June 2013 A similar case involving six states has been in federal court since 2010.

In the U.S., Syngenta is facing lawsuits from farmers and shipping companies regarding Viptera genetically modified corn. The plaintiffs in nearly 30 states contend that Syngenta's introduction of Viptera drove down U.S. grain market prices, leading to financial harm, and that Syngenta acted irresponsibly by doing too little to enable shipping companies to export the grain to approved ports. Before Viptera's 2010 introduction Syngenta secured all U.S. and NCGA-recommended export approvals, but none from China. China had imported little to no U.S. grain prior to 2010, and at the time was not considered a major partner, which changed in 2010, when it dramatically increased U.S. grain imports. For three years, China imported U.S. Viptera grain without formal approval. In November 2013, Chinese officials destroyed a U.S. grain trade containing Viptera grain and began rejecting all U.S. shipments with the GM grain, but continued to accept it from all countries other than the U.S. The same year, U.S. corn market prices dropped $4 per bushel, causing over $2.9 billion in losses, with just over half of that loss occurring prior to China's November rejection. China later approved the GM corn in 2014, but U.S. corn grain market prices have since not rebounded. Syngenta lost the first lawsuit to reach trial in Kansas on 23 June 2017, and was ordered to pay the farmers $217 million. However, Syngenta has stated it would appeal the verdict.

In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is initiating litigation against Syngenta, challenging certain US-based discount programs extended to their respective customers. In January 2024, a federal judge ruled that both Corteva and Syngenta must face the FTC lawsuit.

In 2024 more than 5,000 Americans have active lawsuits against Syngenta, alleging ties between use of the paraquat herbicide product, Gramoxone, and the onset of Parkinson's disease. Syngenta denies any causal link between its product and Parkinson's disease. Syngenta took steps in April 2025 to resolve the majority of approximately 5,800 lawsuits pending in multidistrict litigation in federal court in Illinois. In addition, there were approximately 450 lawsuits pending in California state court and many more in state courts across the country.

Internal documents from Syngenta, unsealed as part of court proceedings, showed a memo from the company's head of regulatory sciences, Lewis Smith, warning about the scientific consensus that paraquat was linked to Parkinson's disease.

In the past, Syngenta's crop protection products have also been the subject of repeated criticism. The company was accused of including the sale of highly toxic pesticides in its business model. In 2012, the company was therefore nominated for the "Public Eye Award", which denounces companies with questionable human rights practices. In 2023, the Arkansas attorney general Tim Griffin ordered Syngenta to sell land in the state under a prohibition against land sales to entities with "a connection to a country subject to the federal International Traffic in Arms Regulations."

The Brazilian police investigation, which concluded in November 2007, blamed the confrontation and death of the trespasser on nine employees and the owner of NF Security; the leader of MST was blamed for trespassing. The inquiry found that the invader was fatally shot in the abdomen and in the leg. The security guard was shot in the head. Eight others were injured, five of them invaders.

The Civil Court of Cascavel granted an order for the repossession of the site on 20 December 2007 and on 12 June 2008, the remaining MST members left the Santa Teresa site they had been occupying. On 14 October 2008, Syngenta donated the 123-hectare station to the Agronomy Institute of Paraná (IAPAR) for research into biodiversity, recovery of degraded areas and agriculture production systems, as well as environmental education programs.

In November 2015, Judge Pedro Ivo Moreiro, of the 1st Civil Court of Cascavel, ruled that Syngenta must pay compensation to the family of Valmir Mota de Oliveira ("Keno"), who was killed in the attack, and to Isabel Nascimento dos Santos who was injured. In his sentence the judge stated that "to refer to what happened as a confrontation is to close one's eyes to reality, since … there is no doubt that, in truth, it was a massacre disguised as repossession of property". The version of events put forward by Syngenta was rejected by the Court. In May 2010, Syngenta was condemned by the IV Permanent People's Tribunal for human rights violations in Brazil.

In 2010, Syngenta forwarded an ethics complaint to the University of California Berkeley, complaining that Hayes had been sending sexually explicit and harassing e-mails to Syngenta scientists. Legal counsel from the university responded that Hayes had acknowledged sending letters having "unprofessional and offensive" content, and that he had agreed not to use similar language in future communications.

According to an article in the 10 February 2014, issue of The New Yorker, Syngenta's public-relations team took steps to discredit Hayes, whose research is purported to suggest that the Syngenta-produced chemical atrazine was responsible for abnormal development of reproductive organs in frogs. The article states that the company paid third-party critics to write articles discrediting Hayes's work, planned to have his wife investigated, and planted hostile audience members at scientific talks given by Hayes.

During a 21 February 2014, interview conducted on Democracy Now, Hayes reiterated the claims.Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman for Democracy Now. 21 February 2014. Silencing the Scientist: Tyrone Hayes on Being Targeted by Herbicide Firm Syngenta After the interview aired, Syngenta denied targeting Hayes or making any threats, calling those statements "uncorroborated and intentionally damaging" and demanding a retraction and public apology from Hayes and Democracy Now.