Wheat Fight

Several U.S. wheat farmers recently filed a $125 million class action lawsuit against Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd., alleging they were prevented from selling their wheat products to Iraq because AWB was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime so that Iraq would deal solely with AMB, according to several Australian news articles, including the Melbourne Herald Sun. Virginia farmer John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, a lobbying group representing thousands of U.S. farmers, is one of the lead plaintiffs in the case. The group recently hired D.C. law firm Doyle, Barlow & Mazard to represent them as the farmers gear up for any possible litigation that could ensue from a merger between agribusiness giant Monsanto and cotton producer Delta & Pine Land, currently being reviewed by the Department of Justice's antitrust division. The group has been lobbying Congress and the DOJ to stop the merger.