Farmers Union groups in Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa along with over 90 other ag organizations are backing Senate legislation introduced this week to place an 18 month moratorium on mega agribusiness mergers. Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish says farmers have less choices for the companies they do business with and the resulting concentration is resulting in higher prices and less innovation hurting agriculture.
He says the Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2018 would give regulators more time to review antitrust impacts of any possible merger.
Wertish says the concentration of ag businesses is worsening and in the past two years has seen chemical and seed company mergers and acquisitions result in three companies controlling two thirds of the crop seed and nearly 70 percent of ag chemical markets.
Wertish says the legislation is modeled after the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone’s bill introduced 20 years ago.
