The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission had their first official listening forum on mergers and acquisitions on Monday. This forum focused on food and agriculture. The goal of the listening sessions is to revise merger guidelines. “These guidelines were last updated in 2010 and have continued to evolve,” said Lina Khan, chair, FTC. “Fresh evidence of consolidation throughout the economy, including agricultural markets, suggest we should take a hard look at how we are investigating mergers and enforcing anti-merger laws.” In the forum, Grand Forks, North Dakota farmer Todd Leake encouraged the DOJ to consider the effects of past mergers on seed choices for farmers. “The merger of so many regional seed companies has led to higher prices for GMO-trait seed and stack traits that don’t meet the needs of farmers because they contain unnecessary traits for a particular farmer’s needs or constrain a farmer to a particular seed herbicide system.” A public comment period on the merger guidelines is open through mid-April.
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