Election dwarfs shrimp fight

—By Amos Kenigsberg

| Tue Nov. 14, 2000 12:00 AM PST

While millions of Americans are focussed on the Palm Beach area, awaiting the results of the presidential voting there, another important but much less-noticed fight is unfolding in Broward County's courthouse.

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DIBSA, a large Ecuadorian shrimp farming company, has filed suit against Du Pont, claiming one of the megacorporation's many agricultural products is crippling Ecuador's important shrimp industry. This chemical, the shrimp company claims, is polluting their waters and killing their shrimp.

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A BROWARD-PALM BEACH NEW TIMES article reports that DIBSA's lawyers say the chemical to blame is a fungicide called Benlate. This isn't the first time Benlate has come under fire: Du Pont has already paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in suits brought against it for damage allegedly wreaked elsewhere by the chemical.

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