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They call the giants of agribusinesses the Big Six: Bayer, BASF, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta. Together, they account for a little more than half the sales of seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers around the world. . . .
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Why are all these companies attracted to each other all of a sudden? And if the Big Six turn into the Big Three, what would that mean for farmers and the environment?
To find out what’s going on, I called Bill Buckner, who . . . now the head of the Samuel Roberts Foundation, which does farm research.
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Buckner explained . . . when [farm prices] fall — as they’ve been doing the last few years — investors in the Big Six get nervous. If farmers aren’t making enough money, they may not buy expensive seeds . . . When investors start to worry that companies have maxed out farmers’ ability to buy new things, they begin pushing for mergers. . . .
The danger is that all these mergers will lead to monopoly and monoculture. . . seed breeders convened by the Rural Advancement Foundation International, found that consolidation of agribusiness had decreased commercial crop diversity. . .
Read full, original post: The world’s biggest seed companies are wooing
