US: Seed industry consolidation is bad news for family farms

Whether it be the lack of a competitive market environment for farmers to sell their products, or fewer choices in the grocery store, concentration within agribusiness affects us all. Enforcement of federal antitrust laws has slackened in recent years, with few meaningful investigations into mergers and acquisitions of large agricultural producers, suppliers and processors. As a result, substantial consolidation has occurred in the agricultural sector, including the commercial seed industry. This continued consolidation is bad news for family farms.

The global seed industry as it is today began to take shape in the 1990s. During the latter part of that decade, the acquisition of smaller seed companies by larger ones began to pick up speed with the “Big Six” (Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow and BASF) emerging at the top of the heap. Since 2008, the top eight seed companies have acquired more than 70 of their competitors. Currently, Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta control over half of the global seed market, up from 22 percent in 1996.

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