By Mary Hendrickson
Wall Street Journal
February 7, 2005
Your Jan. 25 article "Monsanto Co. to Pay $1 Billion for Produce-Seed Firm Seminis" raises important issues about the potential uses of biotechnology in the vegetable seed market and the consolidation of the global seed industry. The bigger issue, however, is the fundamental question of how few companies will dominate the seed industry and thus shape the very foundation of our food system.
With this acquisition, Monsanto has surpassed DuPont Co. in the global seed market. The company now owns a major portion of the corn, cotton, soybean, canola and vegetable seed markets, and only five firms -- Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer, Dow and Syngenta -- are major players in the global seed and agricultural chemicals industry. The monopolization of this market and the earlier hybridization of seeds have left many American farmers with higher seed costs, forcing some to purchase seeds when they would traditionally produce their own. The bottom line is a transfer of wealth from the farmers to seed companies.
Will a company like Monsanto offer new opportunities for vegetable farmers, or will these produce farmers meet the same challenges as soybean and cotton farmers -- bigger farms, fewer farms and intense international competition?
Mary Hendrickson
Food and Society Policy Fellow
University of Missouri
Columbia, Mo.