The federal government’s extended the deadline for farmers to file for damages in the Starlink corn case. When genetically-modified grain was found in human food products, a group of Midwestern farmers said their profits were hurt by consumer fears. A settlement they reached with the maker of Starlink gives a total of 110-million dollars to thousands of corn farmers who did NOT grow the Starlink variety, but industry official Don Hutchins says there were difficulties using the claim process offered over the Internet.Many had trouble downloading claim forms from the Starlink website, so the Corn Board helped but ran up against the deadline. As the end-of-May deadline approached there were more technical problems. Friday, of all days, just before the deadline, the Starlink official website went down. Many farmers had also said said they were too busy planting to make the deadline. That’s now been extended to July 31st. Hutchins is director of the Nebraska Corn Board. To link to the non-Starlink corn settlement website, go to www.nonstarlinkfarmerssettlement.com
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