A new poll and report from the Konkurrenz Group found that the vast majority of farmers disapprove of the proposed merger between Bayer and Monsanto. The poll, administered by a coalition of food and farm groups across the country, collected more 950 responses. The farmers polled represented both conventional and organic crop and animal farming, and farm on a collective 1.96 million acres in 48 states.
More than 93 percent of poll respondents indicated that they are concerned about the proposed merger between the two companies, and worried that the deal would have a negative impact on farming communities. The top concerns of farmers overall are that a combined Bayer-Monsanto would use its dominance in one sector to push purchases of its other products; that the company would control more farm data; and that the company would increase pressure for chemically dependent farming. Conventional farmers are also concerned that the mergers would hike seed prices.
“This survey underscores what we’ve been hearing from our farm family members for decades — that overwhelming consolidation has substantially eliminated competition in the marketplace,” said National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson in a press release for the report. “Four or five firms dictate the prices that farmers pay for their inputs. Family farmers deserve fair prices, choices in what they plant, and the type of market competition that incentivizes firms to compete and innovate for their business.”
The report argued that the merger would violate U.S. and E.U. competition laws and further strain the ability of farmers to stay afloat. “The results of the survey demonstrate that the ability of farmers to deliver healthy, quality food to Americans is under significant pressure,” the authors wrote. Farmers report that prices for seeds are going up, while quality and innovation in seed offerings is deteriorating.
“This merger will further concentrate ownership of our seed supply, inevitably leading to fewer seed variety options in the marketplace, less genetic diversity in our fields, and higher seed prices for farmers,” said Kiki Hubbard, director of advocacy and communications for the Organic Seed Alliance, in the press release. “Seed prices have nearly quadrupled in the past 20 years, even though yields and the prices farmers receive for their crops have not. History shows us that mergers of this magnitude also reduce rather than inspire innovation.”
The seed and agrochemical sectors are highly consolidated, with just a few companies controlling the majority of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. If the Bayer-Monsanto merger is approved, just three companies — DowDuPont, ChemChina (which bought Syngenta in 2017), and Bayer-Monsanto — would comprise the top players in agrochemical inputs. The Bayer-Monsanto merger is still under review in the United States.