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Iowa Farmers Union is concerned with ‘mega-mergers’
Aaron Lehman (photo courtesy practicalfarmers.org)
The president of Iowa Farmers Union, Aaron Lehman, says his group opposes the proposed mergers of major seed and chemical companies.
“The concern we have is that the farmer will have fewer choices, which will actually lead to higher prices if those mergers were to go through,” Lehman says.
Officials of the companies involved in those mergers, including Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Bayer and Syngenta, say the consolidations will lead to more innovation.
Lehman questions whether that would be the case.
“I think farmers are constantly being told that competition drives innovation—and if we take out the competition aspect of this, I just don’t see how that’s going to drive innovation in the right direction.”
Lehman is a farmer from Polk City, Iowa.
Iowa Farmers Union is one of the more than 300 organizations calling on new U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to block the proposed seed-chemical company mergers.
AUDIO: Aaron Lehman
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