10 • Thursday, November 26, 2015 / Midwest Farm and Ag - Rock Valley Publishing
Corporate farming: Who owns the world’s seeds? By John Crabtree Center for Rural Affairs
This summer, agrochemical, biotechnology, and seed giant Monsanto dropped their bid to acquire their Switzerlandbased competitor Syngenta. Initial merger serenades were sternly rebuffed by Syngenta, and Monsanto’s interest turned into a $46.5 billion hostile takeover. Monsanto had no fear of backlash from U.S. antitrust
officials. And there’s the rub, the reason a failed merger is still worthy of note and cause for concern. What level of seed industry consolidation would have to be achieved to trigger interest, let alone action, at the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division? According to Dr. Philip Howard of Michigan State University, there have been more than 70 seed company acquisitions by the top eight
Farmers have lost access to varieties while seeing the prices they pay for biotechnology traits through technology agreements skyrocket. Further consolidation in the seed sector will make matters worse. The failed Monsanto-Syngenta merger should be a clarion call for the Department of Justice Antitrust division to breathe life into the 2009 announcement of their intention to investigate anticom-
I remember when we first purchased our grain cart to speed up the corn harvest. A grain cart is one of those huge wagons with the attached auger in the front that we see out in the corn fields where the combines are picking corn. It really sped things up when we started unloading the combine “on the go” instead of unloading into a stationery wagon or truck sitting at the end of the field. It just so happened that every so often the speeds of the tractor pulling the grain cart and the combine picking the corn would be out of sync, and the result would be missing the grain cart and leaving a pile of corn on the ground in the middle of the field. It was a horrible feeling to look from the front of the combine to the side window and see that your auger was dumping corn on the ground and not in the cart where it belonged. More than once I had to go out to the field in the pickup truck and shovel up the corn that I had dumped on the
Emerson Nafziger, Extension agronomist These and 14 other courses covering soil and water management, integrated pest management, and crop management topics are open for public viewing free of charge on the University of Illinois Extension CCA webpage. Descriptions of each course are listed below course titles on the main webpage. To view a course, click on the course title, then click on the words “Begin Course” under the green box located on the right side of the page. Certified Crop Advisors interested in earning continuing education units (CEUs) must register, log in, pay a small fee, view each slide in its entirety, and complete a short quiz.
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ground. When corn was $10 a bushel a few years ago, it was especially painful. Since we ground corn into feed for our steers once a week, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I would just scoop the dirty grain into the feed grinder. Back in Old Testament times, the farmers were instructed to leave a little grain in fields for the widows, the poor and the foreigners to come by and pick up for their own use. This makes sense considering God’s laws always look after those in need. In the book of Ruth, we see that this young woman of that name had lost her husband and was out gathering grain for herself and her mother-in-law so they
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petitive behavior in the seed industry. We are well past the time for action over empty promises. Established in 1973, the Center for Rural Affairs is a private, non-profit organization working to strengthen small businesses, family farms and ranches, and rural communities through action oriented programs addressing social, economic, and environmental issues.
Bringing in the Harvest
Online courses target weed, crop management URBANA, Ill. — Each year the University of Illinois Extension’s regional Crop Management Conferences offer hours of research-based education to farmers, Certified Crop Advisors, and other agricultural professionals. Interactive online courses were developed from 2015 conference presentations by U of I Department of Crop Sciences faculty. Some of those presentations include: New (and Old) Tools for Delaying and Coping with Herbicide Resistance – Adam Davis, USDA weed ecologist Confirming Herbicide Resistance – Aaron Hager, Extension weed scientist Corn & Soybean Agronomy: Will What Worked in 2014 Work in 2015? –
firms since 2008. Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta maintained their dominant position, collectively controlling over 50% of the market, up from 22% in 1996. Monsanto acquiring Syngenta would have put over half the American seed market in the hands of just two transnational corporations. It’s difficult to imagine a more crucial concern for farmers than who owns and controls the world’s seeds.
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would have something to eat. The land owner liked Ruth, because he had heard how she was taking care of her mother-in-law, and so he instructed the gleaners to leave some extra grain to help her out. It’s a great story because it shows how a kind, God fearing and wealthy landowner named Boaz takes Ruth under his care and helps her. Eventually the two of them are married and raise a family together. God is looking for people in every walk of life to be kind and gracious. I really like this Boaz guy because he just seems to be so kind and genuine. In Ruth chapter two and verse four, Boaz goes to field in the morning and greets his field workers with a hearty, “The Lord be with you,” and his workers replied, “The Lord bless you!” Those small statements alone show the type of boss he was. First of all, he was Godfearing, he loved the Lord and wanted God to bless others. I think it would be very cool to be so wealthy that I could just walk around with one hundred dollar bills and encourage people who are in need. I love that idea of going through the drive through at a restaurant and paying for the guy behind you. Being generous is a godly characteristic. Remember how generous God has been to us by sending His one perfect son to this earth to die on the cross so that by faith in Christ, we might be forgiven and redeemed from our sinful condition. If you get a chance this week, look for someone to be generous to and watch God bless your life. Until next week, God bless!