EXTRACT: "The company has raised prices drastically every year with no competition, taking money from farmers' pockets and rural Iowa's economy." - Chris Petersen, Iowa Farmers Union president
---
---
Seed company has expensive monopoly
Des Moines Register, October 17 2008
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081017/OPINION04/810170347/-1/NEWS04

Iowa farmers are at a disadvantage. In the face of historic fuel costs, farmers are paying higher seed prices with less choice in the marketplace. Monsanto controls more than 90 percent of the market in many important crop genetics.

The company has raised prices drastically every year with no competition, taking money from farmers' pockets and rural Iowa's economy.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has been investigating Monsanto's market practices to determine whether it violates antitrust laws. Everything in agriculture begins with the seed.

If Miller can find a way to return competitive prices and innovation to Iowa's seed market, he will have done a great service to Iowa agriculture.

- Chris Petersen, Iowa Farmers Union president, Clear Lake