Concentration in Seed Industry – Less Choice, Higher Prices

NFFCPress Room

American farmers are feeling the effects of a concentrated seed industry. Seed options are diminishing while prices increase at historic rates. A new report, Out of hand: Farmers face the consequences of a consolidated seed industry, examines these troubling trends, substantiating the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into alleged anticompetitive conduct in the seed industry.

2009 Newsletters

NFFCNewsletters

From the President by Ben Burkett: I was one of 130 guests invited by President Obama to participate in the forum on jobs and economic growth at the White House on December 3. Along with Rhonda Perry from Missouri Rural Crisis Center, I represented NFFC and the Rural Coalition. We broke up into session groups of 25 and I was the only person representing agriculture in the entrepreneurial business session. On the issue of credit we discussed banks not lending to small businesses and farmers despite the millions of dollars in stimulus funds dispersed, something noted by everyone in the room. President Obama called on Rhonda to speak during the Q&A, and she said, “Many times and many places around this country, in rural communities, independent family farmers are the biggest bang for our buck in terms of creating jobs, with independent businesses that depend on farmers, from the people we buy our seed from, to the people we use to process
our meat, to the transportation system to haul our grain.” I presented to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
a report by Jerry Pennick (Land Assistance Fund) on credit issues describing how credit unions can support rural economies; Secretary Geithner promised to follow up with us later. Despite the fact that there
were only two of us there on behalf of family farmers I felt we did a good job representing our organizations and the agricultural community.

Obama’s Change Mandate in Question

NFFCPress Room

With Copenhagen around the corner and failure of this week’s WTO negotiations, the Obama administration’s international agenda and leadership style are coming under scrutiny. The potential confirmation of controversial former pesticide lobbyist Islam Siddiqui as the U.S. trade representative for agriculture threatens to further undermine this administration’s credibility in international forums by privileging U.S. corporate interests over the global public interest and common good.