By Mary Hendrickson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 13, 2005
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Monsanto's acquisition of Seminis raises important issues about the potential uses of biotechnology in the vegetable seed market. It also raises a fundamental question about the small number of companies dominating the seed industry and shaping the foundation of our food system.
Today, Monsanto and DuPont control 60 percent of the U.S. corn and soybean seed market. They join three other companies, Syngenta, Dow and Bayer, as the world's leading suppliers of seed and chemicals for commercial crops worldwide.
Monsanto's leading technology in genetically engineering Round-up Ready soybeans has affected American farmers significantly. Nearly 85 percent of America's soybean crop is planted with Round-up Ready technology, touted both as increasing farmers' profits while reducing herbicide use.
In reality, Round-up Ready beans have reduced farmer decision-making, while allowing farmers to manage larger farms with integrated seed and chemical packages. Increased productivity and more expansive operations have not improved farmers' bottom line.
Researchers at Iowa State University, as well as independent consultants such as Charles Benbrook, have shown that Round-up Ready beans are no more profitable for farmers than conventional soybeans because of increased seed costs. Privatizing the breeding of crops through genetic engineering means farmers buy seeds they traditionally would have produced on their own farms. Farm level impacts translate into community impacts. Farms are bigger, fewer people farm and fewer businesses serve those farms - significantly reshaping agricultural-dependent communities across Missouri and Illinois.
But it's not just farmers and rural people who are affected by changes in the seed industry. Every American who eats can see the transformation of the food system in local grocery stores. Less choice at the farm level ultimately reduces choice in the supermarket aisle. Reducing competition in the seed market will reduce the choices farmers have for planting and reduce the availability of seeds adapted for local markets. With fewer companies competing to develop and refine seeds for commercial vegetable and grain crops, is it possible that genetic diversity could be dangerously reduced?
Consolidation in the food and agricultural industry is nothing new, and the seed business seems to be following the pattern.
As farmers and consumers, we have stopped making decisions about what kind of food we will produce and eat in this country. Corporate producers make that decision for us. We let global food firms decide where our food comes from, how much it will cost and how it will taste.
When shaped by these corporate forces, our food decisions no longer rest primarily on taste, quality, nutrition, security and culture. These decisions are made based on how cheaply food can be produced and sold for the most profit. Even without applying biotechnological inventions such as Round-up Ready soybeans, cotton and canola, or Bt-resistant corn to the vegetable seed market, consolidation and lack of competition have left many farmers with higher seed and input costs.
While Monsanto might offer new opportunities for vegetable farmers, it is just as likely these farmers will find restructuring in their seed industry means they face the same fate as American soybean and cotton farmers - bigger farms, fewer farms and intense international competition.
This acquisition may make financial sense on Wall Street, but consumers should ask if it is sensible to give control over the genetic material of our food to corporations that must focus solely on the bottom line.