The Bayer-Monsanto Merger Clears Antitrust Questions in Europe

While the Bayer-Monsanto merger remains under consideration here in the U.S., the E.U. has, reports Reuters, approved it from an antitrust perspective, meaning the E.U. has declared that a merger of the two corporations will not create an unfair monopoly.

This merger is one of several either proposed or completed Big-Ag mergers in the past 15 years. Others include Dow and DuPont, ChinaChem and Syngenta, and Agrium and Potash. Those fighting for the rights of farmers see this wave of mega-mergers as incredibly dangerous for individual farmers, predicting a huge decrease in the already-scare number of companies providing seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and equipment. Farmers fear being forced into a lack of choice: you go with, say, Monsanto-Bayer seeds, or nothing.

The E.U. only granted approval for the merger once both companies agreed to sell assets to competitors, theoretically evening the field a little bit. (BASF, the German chemical giant, is mentioned as a buyer of various rights and Bayer’s vegetable seed division.) The E.U. joins China in issuing preliminary approval for the merger.

But that still leaves the United States, which, aside from being the home of Monsanto, also has a completely different set of agricultural needs and priorities. Genetically modified seeds, for example, are banned in most of the E.U., and provides a huge portion of Monsanto’s profits. The merger thus will have a much greater impact on the seed market in the U.S., which for most large-scale agriculture relies on GMO products. The U.S. is still mulling over the antitrust challenges to the merger.