Federal judge orders settlement talks in soybean seed suit

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A judge is ordering settlement talks in a lawsuit filed by black farmers from Mississippi and Tennessee who claim a company sold them faulty soybean seeds because of their race.
U.S. District Judge John Fowlkes told the farmers and Stine Seed Co. to begin mediation in a lawsuit alleging the company conspired with a seed salesman to sell thousands of dollars’ worth of defective seeds to the farmers because they are black.
Fowlkes on Thursday set a March 15 deadli