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  • From: "Art Warheit" <walt00@earthlink.net>
  • To: "self-reliance, networking, and simple living, for small farm sustainability, rural independence and security." <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] unsubscribe
  • Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 12:56:57 -0500

please take me off your mailing list. Thanks.

If this isn't the correct procedure, please tell me how to go about it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>; <nmgreens@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 6:08 AM
Subject: [Livingontheland] Monsanto Accused of Price-Fixing


>
> Monsanto Accused of Price-Fixing
> =================================
>
> By Julian Borger
> The Guardian UK
> Wednesday 07 January 2004
>
> Monsanto, the corporate driving force behind the
> development of genetically modified food, held
> frequent meetings with its chief competitors and
> persuaded them to raise the price of GM seeds, it was
> reported yesterday.
>
> Monsanto has admitted that meetings with senior
> executives of another agri-industrial giant, Pioneer
> Hi-Bred International Inc, took place in the late
> 1990s, but insists they were legal discussions about
> seed licensing agreements, rather than illegal
> price-fixing.
>
> However, legal experts said that distinction was
> murky and predicted that an investigation would be
> launched.
>
> "The problem is that you have competitors talking
> to each other, which makes you uneasy," said Lawrence
> White, an economics professor and antitrust expert at
> New York University.
>
> "There are lots of legitimate reasons for them to
> be meeting, but the fact they were talking about
> prices makes you even more uneasy. You certainly have
> to worry here and my guess is the [justice
> department's] antitrust division is going to be
> looking very closely at this."
>
> The justice department would not say yesterday
> whether a formal inquiry hadbegun. It is already
> investigating Monsanto for anti-competitive practices
> in the herbicide market.
>
> A New York Times investigation found that
> executives from Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-Bred - the two
> biggest seed companies in the world, who account for
> 60% of the US market in maize and soybean seeds - met
> repeatedly between 1995 and 1999 to discuss licences
> under which Pioneer sold genetically altered seeds
> that had originally been developed by Monsanto.
>
> The report quotes former executives, court papers
> and other documents as saying those talks involved the
> prices at which the seeds should be sold and how to
> keep those prices high.
>
> Executives from two other seed companies,
> Novartis and Mycogen, said they also came under
> pressure from Monsanto to coordinate their pricing
> policies but rejected the approaches as potentially
> illegal.
>
> Monsanto did not return calls seeking comment
> yesterday, but a spokeswoman, Lori Fisher, told the
> New York Times: "Monsanto did offer to expand and
> revise existing licences with Pioneer. In the context
> of a potentially new licence for technology, it is
> absolutely within the law to discuss the price and the
> means of compensation to the licensing party."
>
> Monsanto's critics have long accused the company
> of marketing policies aimed at making farmers around
> the world dependent on its GM technology and its
> seeds.
>
> In 1999, a group of farmers in the national
> family farm coalition (NFFC) took the corporation to
> court, accusing it of forming a cartel aimed at
> monopolising the market in GM maize and soya seeds. A
> court rejected the antitrust charges but the NFFC is
> appealing against the decision.
>
> Bill Christison, the former head of the farmers'
> coalition, said yesterday. "We are giving away the
> seeds of the world to a handful of corporations who
> are going to own all our food production."
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland




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