OCM to moderate Bayer+Monsanto merger briefing. Urge your members of Congress to attend.
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| Friends,
Today, OCM board and staff members are arriving in Washington, D.C. along with coalition members from the farm, food, beekeeping, consumer and environmental communities to raise awareness about concentration in agriculture and the pending Bayer+Monsanto merger. We are at a pivotal moment in food and agriculture. If the Monsanto+Bayer merger goes through, the economics of food, farming, and the environment will be radically altered. It will be impossible to undo. If the $66 billion merger is approved, Monsanto+Bayer will be the world’s largest agribusiness company. Many of the vegetables you eat, key ingredients in our processed foods, the canola oil you use in cooking, and the cotton you wear will all essentially be controlled by one company. For farmers, this merger will have dramatic consequences for the price and availability of the seeds they use. The combined company will own the seed for about 70% of all the cotton grown in the US. Together, Monsanto+Bayer and just one other company will sell 77% of all the corn seed grown in the US, and about 95% of all seed for corn, soybean, cotton, canola, and wheat will contain a Monsanto+Bayer gene that enables the extensive use of herbicides like Roundup on the fields. Take Action We are gathering in Washington to provide the real account of what these mergers mean for our American food system. We are urging lawmakers to protect farmers and the American food supply by not letting these mergers move forward, and we need your help. On Thursday, we will moderate a Congressional Briefing on this issue before members of Congress and their staff. While we have already invited them, it is important for them to hear from their constituents. Please send your Senators and Representative our invitation, and let them know why this issue is important to you. If we are going to take on the world’s largest corporations, family farmers, ranchers and consumers must be organized and speaking as one voice. |
| Thanks for all you do,
Angela Huffman Director of Communications and Research 614-390-7552 Organization for Competitive Markets P.O. Box 6486 Lincoln, NE 68506 |