Some NFU farmers concerned over agribusiness consolidation

Sep 09, 2016

Some producers are heading to Washington to voice concerns

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

A group of farmers are heading to Washington D.C. to voice their concerns about the current agribusiness landscape.

Approximately 250 members of the National Farmers Union will meet with members of Congress and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss the potential impacts of larger agribusiness mergers, including a lack of competition which could lead to higher input costs.

"(Farmers are) going to get stuck with high prices and no competitors,” Harwood Schaffer, an agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee, told Bloomberg. “At some point there needs to be a shift in government policy towards these mergers.”

Many companies are engaging in discussions about mergers or acquisitions in 2016.

Handshake

Dow Chemical Co. is looking to merge with DuPont, China National Chemical has recently extended its tender offer in its purchase of Syngenta, and Bayer recently upped its bid to purchase Monsanto.

However, some farmers fear that speaking out against these mergers could hurt them financially.

“There’s a real trepidation,” Roger Johnson, president of the Farmers Union and former agricultural commissioner of North Dakota, told Bloomberg. “If you’re a farmer who’s a seed dealer, and you’re marketing whatever brand, and you’re quoted as saying something about that company, maybe you’re no longer a seed dealer anymore.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.