Monsanto Draws Antitrust Investigation
Published December 01, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
It is about time.
An article in the Washington Post reveals that the Justice Department, which the Obama Administration has given expanded authority to investigate antitrust cases, is conducting an inquiry into whether Monsanto's activities run afoul of laws regulating dominance by a single corporate entity.
Monsanto produces the genetically engineered (GE) seeds for 93 percent of the United States' soybeans and 80 percent of its corn. Considering that these are the country's two primary crops, the vast majority of crop plants grown in the US come from Monsanto seeds.
The company predictably claims that because it created a set of products farmers want, it deserves to have whatever portion of the market and accompanying profits it's got coming to it.
But as with most things in life, and certainly in food, it's not that simple.
The market in question isn't like any other; it is a marketplace made up of products that create an interlocking living system — a feedback loop of seeds and chemicals — that can't be casually entered by competitors.
Monsanto's rival, DuPont, which has been active in pressing for the antitrust investigation, claims that these circumstances create a situation in which any competitive products must coordinate with the dominant GE seeds, a feat that is impossible when Monsanto tightly controls the licenses for the biotechnology involved.
The Monsanto seeds that have stirred all this controversy are called "Roundup Ready," developed to resist the company's powerful herbicide, Roundup. Though Roundup is now off patent (and known generically as glyphosate), the seeds' symbiotic relationship with the chemical is the key to Monsanto's success.
Farmers have found the prices rising year after year — they have approximately doubled in the last decade, up to the current price of $50 for a 50-pound bag of soybean seed, according to the Post. And while that's expensive, farmers pay in part because pursuing alternative courses is too burdensome in the current monopolistic atmosphere. Monsanto makes sure of it.
DuPont claims that Monsanto is in the business of intimidating farmers who speak up against the situation. Farmers and potential competitors of Monsanto are "afraid to speak in public, worried that they will become victims of retaliation," Thomas L. Sager, DuPont senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement, reports the Post.
The recent films "Food, Inc" and "The Future of Food" detail Monsanto's bullying tactics convincingly via interviews with farmers. Those films report in detail about Monsanto's thuggish tactics for ruining the careers and reputations of any farmer who does not comply with its agenda, as well as its proclivity for mounting aggressive legal attacks against farmers whose fields are unwittingly contaminated with Roundup Ready DNA. Unfortunately, the ubiquity of the GE version of the seed makes keeping conventional cross-pollinating crops free of contamination very difficult, if not impossible.
Monsanto certainly has a lot to answer for. "Monsanto has abused its unlawfully-acquired monopoly power to block competition, thwart innovation and extract from farmers unjustified price increases of over 100 percent in recent years," DuPont's court documents state.
And this is all before we even get into the discussion of whether anyone should be selling GE seeds in the first place.
Photo courtesy of stock.xchng
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
EmailRelated Posts
Comments (10)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations. Her articles, essays, and stories have been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, books, and Websites.
Doctors believe Genetically Modified (GM) foods are a crisis in our midst www.aaemonline.org. They agree that human health is at risk and cross-contamination of multiple non-GMO crops and water sources is at the tipping point.
So,
Because, "inexplicably", there has been zero reliable human health or safety testing performed on GM crops, thanks to a game-changing FDA exemption (put into place by Michael Taylor a legal eagle for Monsanto before he went to work at the FDA as Deputy Commissioner for Policy (1991-94), let's "get into" the discussion about whether the politically-influential biotech industry as a whole, should be allowed to use its "free pass" to sell this untested technology.
Posted by NJ Jaeger on 12/01/2009 @ 09:09AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Um and they also advocate homeopathy as real medicine. Need I say more?
And every scientific organization in the world that deals with food safety says the opposite. As for your assertion GM crops are untested, may I suggest you look at the European Food Safety Agency report of GM food Feeds trials on my website. Even if you choose not to read it the pages apon pages of peer reviewed test reseults says your statemnet is completely false.
http://web.viu.ca/wager
Posted by Robert Wager on 12/01/2009 @ 05:20PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
You just don't have the correct facts sir. Here are the actual reports.
Roundup Could Cause Birth Defects The herbicide used on genetically modified soy - Argentina's main crop - could cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses, according to the results of a scientific investigation released Monday. Although the study "used amphibian embryos," the results "are completely comparable to what would happen in the development of a human embryo," embryology professor Andres Carrasco, one of the study's authors, told Efe.
Different RoundUp Formulations Lead to Embryonic, Umbilical cord and Placental Cell Death and Are Poorly Assessed (France) For the first time, the toxicity mechanisms of four different Roundup formulations were studied in human cells. They act at doses where they are not herbicides anymore. The cells were neonatal cells freshly isolated from the umbilical cord, or less sensitive cell lines specially used to measure pollutant toxicity. The various components of these major herbicides were tested because they are among the most common in the world. Their residues are among the major pollutants, and moreover they are authorized as residues contaminating GM foods and feed at the tested levels. Full Story
Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety (Austria) A long-term feeding study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, managed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth, and carried out by Veterinary University Vienna, confirms genetically modified (GM) corn seriously affects reproductive health in mice
Is Bt Cotton Causing Human Allergies and Reproductive Problems and Deaths of Animals? (India) Investigators find human and animal health problems linked with Bt cotton in India. These include allergic reactions in cotton workers, reproductive problems in buffalo and herds of sheep and goats (reduced fertility, aborted foetuses, premature deliveries and calf deaths), toxic effects leading to sudden unexplained animal deaths, as well as reduced milk yields and fat content.
GM Corns Disturbs Immune System in Young and Old Mice (Italy) The Italian government's National Institute of Research on Food and Nutrition has just published a report online in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry documenting significant disturbances in the immune system of young and old mice that have been fed the GM maize MON 810.
Posted by NJ Jaeger on 12/02/2009 @ 10:21AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Monsanto is evil period. Hell with them and everything they repersent.
Biotechnology is clearly in the wrong hands.
Posted by Damon Hogan on 12/02/2009 @ 09:40PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Lets explore this Damon. The biggest reason Monsanto has the largest share of the market is because powers that be have implimented regulations(inversely proportional to actual risk) that make is so expensive to commercialize any GM crop that only those corporation or countries with deep pockets can hope to do it.
If GM crops were regulated on a level commensorate with actual risk, many more players including public funded research, would be better competition for Monsanto.
Posted by Robert Wager on 12/03/2009 @ 06:17PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Robert the reason I think Monsanto is evil is bacause of what they are doing with their so called advances not how big a greedy cutthoat corporation they are.
Posted by Damon Hogan on 12/05/2009 @ 09:38AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Hooray!
But DuPont... the enemy of my enemy is my friend?
Posted by Kristen Ridley on 12/03/2009 @ 10:59AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
It's what's known as "unlikely bedfellows." Ah, this mad-cap country!
Posted by Katherine Gustafson on 12/03/2009 @ 11:20AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
For now. They are next inline
Posted by Damon Hogan on 12/06/2009 @ 10:57AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
And now that China has given commercialization thumbs up for two of the thousand plus GM cultivars already field tested?
Seventy plus countries have active research programs in GM agriculture.
No one company will dominate the decades of GM agriculture to come.
Posted by Robert Wager on 12/03/2009 @ 06:10PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.