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Monsanto’s Dominance Draws Antitrust Inquiry
Peter Whoriskey
For plants designed in a lab a little more than a decade ago, they’ve come a long way: Today, the vast majority of the nation’s two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents.
Ninety-three percent of soybeans. Eighty percent of corn.
The seeds represent “probably the most revolutionary event in grain crops over the last 30 years,” said Geno Lowe, a Salisbury, Md., soybean farmer.
But for farmers such as Lowe, prices of the Monsanto-patented seeds have steadily increased, roughly doubling during the past decade, to about $50 for a 50-pound bag of soybean seed, according to seed dealers.
The revolution, and Monsanto’s dominant role in the nation’s agriculture, has not unfolded without complaint. Farmers have decried the price increases, and competitors say the company has ruthlessly stifled competition.
Now Monsanto — like IBM and Google — has drawn scrutiny from U.S. antitrust investigators, who under the Obama administration have looked more skeptically at the actions of dominant firms.
During the Bush administration, the Justice Department did not file a single case under antimonopoly laws regulating a dominant firm. But that stretch seems unlikely to continue.
This year, the Obama Justice Department tossed out the antitrust guidelines of its predecessor because they advocated “extreme hesitancy in the face of potential abuses by monopoly firms.”
“We must change course,” Christine Varney, the Obama administration’s chief antitrust enforcer, said at the time.
Of all the new scrutiny by Justice, the Monsanto investigation might have the highest stakes, dealing as it does with the food supply and one of the nation’s largest agricultural firms. It could also force the Obama administration, already under fire for the government’s expanded role in the economy, to explain how it distinguishes between normal rough-and-tumble competition and abusive monopolistic business practices.
Monsanto says it has done nothing wrong.
“Farmers choose these products because of the value they deliver on farm,” Monsanto said in a statement. “Given the phenomenally broad adoption of these technologies by farmers, such questions are normal and to be expected.”
Even with the growing cost, farmers have embraced the genetic modifications because they save work and enable them to cultivate more land. The modified plants can stand up to the powerful herbicide glyphosate, best known commercially as Roundup, allowing them to use the weedkiller not just before planting but also after the crops have come up.
“Everybody wants it, and Monsanto is seeing what the market will bear,” said Lowe, 39. “People say that’s capitalism. The question is, where does capitalism meet corruption?”
Before it jumped into biotechnology, Monsanto was already one of the nation’s largest chemical companies and had patented glyphosate, bringing it to market as Roundup in the ’70s.
The product kills just about all weeds, and for farmers it served as a wonderfully effective herbicide. Instead of tilling the earth, they could simply blanket it with Roundup. Because the chemicals in Roundup break down quickly in the sun and rain, seeds could be planted shortly afterward.
It became one of the best-selling herbicides ever, and the seed patents at the center of the antitrust allegations were built upon that chemical’s appeal.
If there was a practical drawback with Roundup, it was that it couldn’t be used after planting: Applying Roundup at that point would kill the crops, too.
Scientists wondered: Could they develop plants that could withstand Roundup?
The answer emerged, partly by accident, out of Louisiana muck.
Monsanto was producing Roundup at a plant in Luling, La., and the water and sludge in the waste ponds around the plant were exposed to the chemical. It was the perfect place to find organisms that could withstand the chemical’s lethal effects.
After bacteria discovered in the pond sludge proved resistant to the chemical, scientists isolated the gene that gave the bacteria Roundup tolerance and placed that gene, known as CPS4, into soybeans, then corn.
The resulting plants, called “Roundup Ready,” represented a billion-dollar breakthrough and, as Monsanto sees it, a just reward for its $1.5 billion investment in biotech research.
“During the same period, our competitors . . . largely ignored biotech,” the company said in a statement. “Monsanto took risks our competition chose not to take.”
Although farmers have grumbled about Monsanto’s regular price increases for Roundup Ready technology for seeds, it is DuPont, a Monsanto rival, that has pressed the antitrust case.
Farmers and seed companies “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. “That’s why it’s so important that antitrust investigators move quickly — to learn the truth before even more harm is done to America’s farmers.”
In court papers, DuPont argues that Monsanto has used the dominance of the Roundup Ready brand to prevent competitors from bringing innovations to market.
In its view, Roundup Ready is so popular that any new biotech innovations must be designed to work with Monsanto’s technology. But Monsanto effectively freezes out the competition, it says, by making it difficult for other companies to win a license to add their traits to Monsanto-patented seeds.
“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 argues in court documents.
A recent paper by Diana Moss of the American Antitrust Institute broadened the antitrust case against Monsanto and called for legal enforcement, citing “an almost intractable situation for competition.” The institute has taken donations from DuPont but does not cater to its donors’ viewpoints, officials said.
Monsanto says that the allegations of stifling competition are “without merit” and that it broadly licenses its technology.
“We license Roundup Ready technology to hundreds of independent seed companies and our major competitors,” Lee Quarles, a company spokesman said. The company won’t license Roundup Ready without restriction, however, because it wants to ensure that any other traits that are stacked onto the Roundup Ready seeds actually function as promised, a precaution that protects their brand and their customers, Monsanto officials say.
Out in the fields, meanwhile, there remains resentment and wonder about the Monsanto-patented seed.
According to Moss, the price of seed from 2000 to 2008 outpaced the growth of crop yields by 2 to 4 percent a year.
Several farmers said the cost of Roundup Ready seeds seemed to rise faster than their own margins. But that doesn’t mean, at least just yet, that they’ll stop using them.
“Everybody likes Roundup Ready,” said William Layton, a grain farmer on the Eastern Shore. “Maybe it costs a little more than we like. But everybody’s going to keep using it.”
Comment: This last statement comes from those farmers who believe in Monsanto’s lies and are unaware of a number of alarming facts that Monsanto tries hard to hide, such as the fact that that “glyphosate, Roundup’s main ingredient, is classified in Europe as ‘dangerous for the environment’ and ‘toxic for aquatic organisms.’” Not only that, but when looking at how the GMOs are affecting the human organism it is difficult to not see Monsanto as the criminal money-making business that it is:
The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food in Humans
Horrifying New Disease Contains Identical Material to GM “Food”
In fact, peasants worldwide are rising up against Monsanto and GMOs, and Germany will ban the cultivation of GMO maize. So not everyone will keep on using it and make profits for Monsanto against their wallet’s interests, but above all, against their very health and the health of those they care about.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/198141-Monsanto-s-dominance-draws-antitrust-inquiry
I cannot afford to donate money to protest against Monsanto at this time, however, if there are any letters of protest or anything of that sort I am more than willing to sign my name to try to stop them.
Please let me know.
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I have an allergic condition called Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia where I am hypersensitive to differeng substances. I was tested for many types of Lecethin, and the only kinds I can tolerate are non-GMO. So, perhaps I am a canary in the coal mine! Yours, Marcia Slatkin.
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Monsanto with their “DEATH SEED” should be fully prosecuted for the poisoning of not just Americans and our animals, but the entire international community who has been affected by MONSANTO’S POISONOUS FRANKENFOOD. How many people are aware of the suicidal deaths in India due to the devastation that MONSANTO’S DEATH SEED has created? One of these Indian farmers actually drank MONSANTO’S POISON AND WRITHED FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS TO AN EXTREMELY PAINFUL DEATH to prove his point in how MONSANTO RUINED HIS FARM, HIS FAMILY, AND HIS LIFE. There was an actual imprint in the dirt where this poor man thrashed for hours as he died.
There’s also Monsanto’s assault on organic farmers for copyright infringement whose fields have been corrupted by cross-pollination by MONSANTO’S DEATH SEED!!!!!!! These farmers’ organic crops were ruined – then Monsanto had the gall to prosecute them??? MONSANTO IS PURE EVIL. This is not what I call capitalism – this is CORPORATE GREED AT THE EXPENSE OF OUR PLANET, OUR PEOPLE, OUR ANIMALS, OUR ECOSYSTEMS – - EVERYTHING!
All toxic chemical producing corporations should be offered a choice – shut down- or- reconfigure to produce ONLY NON-TOXIC, EARTH FRIENDLY, BIODEGRADABLE CHEMICALS. These corporations should pay for clean up of all the damage they have wreaked upon our ecosystems by their toxic chemicals.
Any farmer opting for the “easy way out” in their farming practices by poisoning our people and animals with their ROUNDUP READY FRANKENFOOD – instead of employing organic farming – doesn’t belong in the farming business.
I only buy organic soy & corn products due to the corruption with MONSANTO’S DEATH SEED. Everything else, I buy organic unless not available. My second choice is to buy produce that has not been sprayed by chemicals – usually found at farmer’s markets. I refuse to compromise my health to pay a little less at the checkout stand – if you don’t have your health – nothing else matters. Those who do buy poisoned produce will be paying their wealth and health to MONSANTO’S BUDDY IN TOXIC CHEMICAL CRIME – BIG PHARMA who will pump you full of their TOXIC POISONS. They killed my Mom with their CHEMO and RADIATION – VIA A SLOW, WASTING, HORRIBLY PAINFUL DEATH – SHE WAS TERRIFIED. All my Mom needed was to eat “The Budwig Diet” and she would probably still be with us today – instead of ashes in an urn. I wish I had known about “The Budwig Diet” back then to save her.
So all of you who are ignorant enough to put MONSANTO’S FRANKENFOOD in your mouths – I truly feel sorry for you – who knows – maybe they’ll pump you up with morphine at the end to ease your painful death while they strip you of everything you own to pay for it. Rots o’ Ruck . . .
BUY ORGANIC – WHEN YOU BUY ORGANIC YOU ARE CASTING YOUR VOTE FOR CLEAN LIVING. IF MORE PEOPLE CAST THEIR VOTE FOR ORGANIC – WE’LL HAVE MORE ORGANIC PRODUCERS – BUSINESS FLOWS WHERE THE MONEY GOES. BE GOOD TO YOUR BODIES – IT’S THE ONLY ONE YOU HAVE – BUY ORGANIC.
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Monsanto must be stopped from these egregious monopolistic, world-dominant practices for the sake of the health and wellbeing of the human family. Government must support the people and stop allowing corporations to continue with their current, self-serving abuses. Let’s look at we the people, now, and start serving and protecting us.
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I hope that Monsanto is vigorously investigated. After seeing FOOD, INC. this company is doing criminal things and does not care how they are affecting the consumer, the farmer, the land and all they want is to ensure their dominance, to squash the competition and they are NOT WITHIN their RIGHTS. The are not GOD , they do not own the seeds. They need to be humbled, denied their arrogance and need to be put in their place, which is not the owner of 90% of the corn grown in the USA. WHY ARE THEY ALLOWED TO CONTINUE .. i want to say the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NEEDS TO VIGOROUSLY PROSECUTE THEM NOW
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Like Laurel, I have no money to give against Monsanto, but from what I have read about the abuse of farmers who do not use their seed I have nothing but anger toward the company and their practices.
I know people in our community who are very careful to know where their food comes from and are reluctant to eat anything that has been modified.
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After watching “Food Nation” I have determined that Monsanto is a bully of a corporation that has no problem poisoning Americans and suing farmers into bankruptcy and oblivion. Monsanto should be shut down and its principals prosecuted.
Sincerely,
Ted Maravelias
Windham, NH
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Stop using R’up asap– we know it doesn’t break down into safe substances- it is very toxic–why would countries around the world not use it if it were safe and effective? Use your God-given brain, for goodness sake!
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We should be more carefull about genetically modified products we do know enough about it’s effects on people, animals and the enviroment long term. How can a chemical such as roundup be safe to spray on crops? Roundup kills all vegitation, contaminates and kills fish in ponds and have you ever read the warnings on the package for humans? It is an asystamatic pioson which is now in the plant that we grew even if it did not kill the plant. Is that crop now safe for animals to eat or for humans to eat. I find it impossible to believe it could be safe and I pray that it has not gotten into the foods that may family and I eat. Something must be done for me I buy organic produce when ever I can get them.
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I watch Food,Inc and it was an eye opener, I never realized that the farmers have to buy Monsanto’s seed or can be taken to court. Farmers cannot save their own seed, because Monsanto has a patent on seed and you have to use their seed. What a crock…that a farmer in the USA cannot use their own seed. I felt so bad for the farmers trying to go against Monsanto, it was impossible. Most of the farmers either gave in and used Monsanto’s seed or went out of business. This really outraged me, because I try to eat healthy and had no clue that these seeds are contaminateing America’s food.I buy mostly organic when I can, but I’m sure these seeds travel and contaminate organic farmers. How in the world did this happen?
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Elizabeth C. Clapp Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Monsanto’s practices are atrocious. The company should not be allowed to continue business. Their flagrant disregard for the lives of the people who buy their products is evil. Severe restrictions should be applied to Monsanto. I hope that this corporation will be held accountable for their actions. They have made huge profits at the expense of the American people and lives have been lost because of their practices. Shame on Monsanto!
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Elizabeth C. Clapp Reply:
December 7th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Monsanto’s practices are atrocious. Their flagrant disregard for the lives of the people who buy their products is evil. Severe restrictions should be applied to Monsanto. I hope that this corporation will be held accountable for their actions. They have made huge profits at the expense of the American people and lives have been lost because of their practices. Shame on Monsanto! Monsanto should be completely overhauled. They should be required to go completely green. No toxic chemicals should be allowed to be produced. There is much more that I could say. It’s leaders should be held up to public shame for their actions.Government has been too slow in protecting the well being of the land and its inhabitants.
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I am so surprised that Monsanto makes GMO’s now and turning a profit. As if they need to make anymore money after all the lawsuits that they received in Alabama for giving people cancer because of their illegal dumpings into the Tennessee River. Yes, I know these things because my father retired from this Company and I am so against Chemical Companies and their evil empire that’s destroying our bodies, animals, God’s creation without giving any thought to mankind and God’s creation…. There are repercussions to these attitudes which God says that he will destroy those who destroy God’s temple, (meaning the human body)….We should all read the labels very carefully and buy only organic if possible… There are ways to make the budget work in buying in bulk at Whole Foods….Let’s not buy anymore GMO things which are disguised in our foods. I know that even General Mills and regular Companies have sold out.
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I just want to add one more thing: gee, all these chemicals and birth defects and cancer…There seems to be a correlation. Huh?
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Everything that comes out of Monsanto’s mouth is a lie! They are single-handedly destroying this planet and it’s people. The only thing they care about is profit, at the expense of everything else. The big problem is that the majority of the population is totally oblivious to this atrocity! I’ve tried my best to warn people that these GM foods are poison, but they refuse to believe that these corporations and government have anything but their best interests at heart. We’re labeled conspiracy theorists and yet, more and more people (children) are getting Type II diabetes, cancer, heart problems and a plethora of other illnesses. I’m pissed off, big time and I have a suggestion for the next T. attack! Canada is not a democracy anymore – it’s a dictatorship. We are rapidly losing ANY choice in what we put into our bodies! Health Canada and the FDA are part of the problem. The only thing they listen to is $$$$$!
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