Monsanto and Seed Monopoly

Hello Everyone,

Here's some information about the corporation Monsanto and its growing monopoly (control) of seed production. This is an article written by Ken Roseboro.... an excellent introduction to this challenging environmental topic.

How biotechnology companies monopolize seed markets, escalate seed prices, and eliminate farmer choice

The introduction of genetically engineered (GE) crops has corresponded with increasing monopolization of seed by biotechnology companies and higher seed costs. This has led to tragedies in some countries, while pushing out conventional, non-GE seeds and reducing farmer seed choices.
These impacts are being seen in the United States, Brazil, India, the Philippines, South Africa and Europe.

Seed monopoly

Economists say that when four companies control 40 percent of a market, it's no longer competitive. That's apparently the situation now with U.S. corn and soybean seed markets. Now, the "big four" biotech seed companies — Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer, Syngenta and Dow AgroSciences — own 80 percent of the U.S. corn market and 70 percent of the soybean business. 

They also control more than half the world's seed supply.

Factors that have led to industry domination by a few players include the purchase of smaller seed companies by larger companies and weak anti-trust law enforcement. Supreme Court decisions have allowed GE crops and other plant materials to be patented, while prohibiting seed saving by farmers. 

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated Monsanto's dominance of the seed market after holding public meetings in 2010 where farmers described the company's practices. But at the end of 2012, DOJ announced it had "closed its investigation into possible anticompetitive practices in the seed industry." 

Diana Moss, vice president of the American Antitrust Institute, told Mother Jones food blogger Tom Philpott, "To have a two-year investigation and close it without a peep (i.e. without making any real changes to the law), in our view, does a disservice."

Escalating GE seed prices

Another indication the seed market has become monopolized is the escalating prices for GE seed. Moss points out that in competitive markets, technologies that enjoy widespread and rapid adoption — such as GE crops — typically experience steep declines in prices. 

The opposite has occurred with GE crops. (THEY ARE GETTING MORE EXPENSIVE!) Charles Benbrook, research professor at Washington State University's Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, writes that from 2000 to 2010 as GE soybeans came to dominate the market, the price for seed increased 230 percent. The cost for Monsanto's Roundup Ready 2 soybeans in 2010 was $70 per bag, a 143 percent increase in the price of GE seed since 2001.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, the average per-acre cost of soybean and corn seed increased 325 percent and 259 percent, respectively, between 1995 and 2011. This is roughly the time period when acreage of GE corn and soy grew from less than 20 percent to more than 80-90 percent.

Moss says escalating prices for GE seeds are outstripping increases in grain prices earned by farmers, resulting in farmers being squeezed by higher costs with fewer returns.

Fewer seed choices

Proponents point to the high adoption rates of GE corn and soybeans by U.S. farmers as evidence of strong demand for GE seeds. But a big reason for this is that large seed companies are phasing out non-GE varieties. As a result, farmers have little choice but to buy GE seeds.

Research by Angelika Hilbeck, senior scientist at the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) and others found the number of non-GE corn seed varieties in the U.S. decreased 67 percent from 3,226 in 2005 to 1,062 in 2010, while the number of GE corn seed varieties increased 6.7 percent.

"Farmers are facing fewer choices and significantly higher prices in seed," said Kristina Hubbard, author of the Farmer to Farmer Campaign report. "Seed options narrow when a handful of companies dominate the marketplace."