A member of the agricultural advisory team for President-Elect Trump’s transition is speaking out against proposed mergers in the seed and chemical industry, according to an article from KTIC. Bruce Rastetter, a farmer and CEO of Summit Agricultural Group, is reportedly calling on farmers and others in the industry to push the Trump administration to block three “mega mergers”: Bayer AG and Monsanto, Dow Chemical and DuPont and the Syngenta-ChemChina merger.
According to the article, Rastetter warns that the proposed mergers threaten farmers worldwide, saying they “will limit competition, stifle innovative research and stunt job growth — and will eventually lead to increased costs for farmers.” Rastetter reportedly is praising a push for less regulation in agriculture and business, specifically calling for an overhaul of the patent licensing process for biotechnology, yet at the same time asking for strong enforcement of federal antitrust laws.
Read the entire article here.