April/May 2000
By the Mother Earth News editors
With merger-mania sweeping the seed and agrochemical industry, and large corporations gobbling up smaller interests, the world's food supply is quickly falling under the control of a very few large international companies. In fact, according to the nonprofit Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), you can count the key remaining players on one hand:
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* The above figures, reprinted with permission of RAFI, were based on pro forma sales for announced mergers, several of which still had to be approved as MOTHER went to press. But, according to RAFI, if alt goes as planned, the "Jumbo Gene Giants" will control 68% of the global agrochemical market, over 20% of the commercial seed market and nearly 100% of the GMO seed market. RAFI, an international nongovernmental organization based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is dedicated to fostering sustainable agriculture.