By Doug Gurian-Sherman
Seed company mergers have been all over the news lately. First, there was Monsanto’s rebuffed attempts to buy Syngenta, followed by a proposed merger between DuPont and Dow. Then, a Chinese company expressed interest in buying Syngenta, which lead to Syngenta’s renewed interest by Monsanto. As this chart
by Michigan State University’s Phillip Howard shows, all this recent
merger activity is the culmination of about two decades of the world’s
largest seed companies swallowing up smaller companies by the score.
And while most of these developments have been reported as business
stories, they also have huge implications for agriculture and our food
supply.
Yes, these mergers would have big economic ramifications. For example, as I’ve noted,
the growing economic power of seed companies, and the gene and crop
patents they own, often keep farmers from being able to save seeds. This
allows the companies to jack up prices, which results in a higher
percentage of farmer profits going to seed purchases than before and
lowers profit margins per acre for farmers. This trend puts upward
pressure on farm size, which often contributes to simplified farming
practices that lead to environmental harm.
But lost in the legitimate concerns about economics, have been the
implications of mega seed companies when it comes to the impact of
climate change on farming.
The Threat of Climate Change and the Need for Crop Diversity
Climate change is a well-recognized threat to crop production, and
research has shown that it is probably already reducing the productivity
of some major crops.
Increased temperatures and droughts cut productivity, as do extreme
precipitation events and floods, causing possible increased pest
invasions, and harm to important crop helpers like pollinators.
How we grow and breed our crops can either make them more climate
resilient or more vulnerable. And one key element of resilience against
climate change is crop genetic diversity. Sadly, when large industrial
agriculture companies exert their influence, diversity is generally
reduced. That means fewer types of crops and less genetic diversity
within each crop.
And a seed company landscape made up of fewer, larger companies will likely make this problem worse.
These mergers would also probably lead to a reduction in research. As Brett Bergemann, Monsanto’s Chief Operating Officer, has said,
“The crop chemicals industry is bound to consolidate because target
companies are spending too much on research and development for new
products.” Meanwhile, commercial farming has become increasingly dependent on private sector research to develop potentially useful traits.
Recent research
supports the increased climate resilience of diverse cropping systems
that rely on agroecology, like using long crop rotations, cover crops,
manures and mulches, intercropping, perennial plants, and so forth.
Yields averaged seven and 22 percent higher for corn and soybeans,
respectively, grown in more diverse crop rotations under hot and dry conditions. Greater drought tolerance has also been observed with increased varieties of a single crop in Ethiopia.
Large seed companies aren’t the only factors driving U.S. farms to
become less diverse; the demands made by food retailers and processors
and our nation’s farm policies also play a large role. But they’re a big
piece of the puzzle.
These seed companies put most of their breeding efforts into a small
number of major crops like corn, soybeans, and cotton, which increases
their economic competitiveness compared to other crops. Recent research published in PLOS One
found that cropping systems are becoming simpler especially in places
like the U.S. Midwest, where these major crops are particularly
dominant. The researchers attributed this trend to be in part due to the
concentrated seed industry.
Many of the crops that have been replaced around the world by corn and soybeans are more climate-resilient. For example, sorghum, millet,
pigeon peas, and cassava are generally more heat and drought tolerant.
As the big seed companies grow, and push their varieties on
international markets, they may further displace local crops.
And the big seed companies also foster poor generic diversity within
the crops that they favor. For example, National Academy of Sciences
member and internationally respected geneticist and corn breeder Major Goodman noted at a summit about crop breeding
in 2014 that the big companies rely heavily on just a few basic types
of corn, to which they add a few additional traits. Meanwhile, the much
more genetically diverse native varieties of maize—and its wild relative
and progenitor, teosinte (which can supply even more adaptive traits to
corn)—are being lost from their regions of origin in Mexico and
Guatemala.
It is much more expensive to produce many diverse locally adapted
varieties, and more time-consuming. So big seed companies generally
narrow their focus to reduce costs. The more the seed and breeding
industries and communities become concentrated in a few mega-companies,
the more these harmful trends will be exacerbated. But we’re reducing
our adaptability just at the moment when we will need it the most.
Small Farmers Hold the Key
By contrast, small farms, and especially indigenous farmers who are
under pressure from companies and governments around the world, are the
keepers of the types of genetic diversity that we will all need to
continue to adapt to a changing climate. They have developed, nurtured,
conserved, and traded these diverse local crop varieties for millennia.
In fact, they should be celebrated and supported for doing the original
crowdsourcing, or “seed-sourcing.”
But all is not lost. As researchers Maywa Montenegro and Dianne Rocheleau
pointed out in their recent papers, the loss of small and peasant farms
has slowed in recent years in some areas, sometimes through active
resistance. In fact, many of these farmers continue to plant diverse
crops and varieties.
However, we cannot be complacent about the vitality of the stewards
of our genetic inheritance. Big seed companies and the high-profit crop
varieties that they favor, will continue to displace or absorb small and
peasant farms into a system that sees them primarily as potential
customers.
We need to actively support small farms and their communities through
public policies, and public participatory breeding without patents,
such as the work of the Open Source Seed Initiative,
while opposing further seed company mergers and patents that prevent
seed saving. Our future ability to produce the food we need in the face
of climate change depends upon it.
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