At times I have expressed much concern on this blog of concentration in the seed industry and have been very critical of one of the chief actors in this growing concentration : Monsanto.

One of my major sources — or at least a group whose articles I have posted here for contemplation/ discussion of such matters is the Organization for Competitive Markets. I have found them to be less visionary than I had hoped and too miopic, but have beleived their information to be well researched and reliable. They offered me a job last year, which I declined.

Now, however, in the interest of openess, I believe I must post the following news. I’m afraid that OCM may have drifted from a defender of family farms, a supporter of the integrity of the free market, and a force for decentralization into just another leftist group funded by one of the big corporations they claim to oppose :

(sorry for posting the whole article here, I don’t have a link)

Quote:

St. Louis Conference Aimed at Reducing Monsanto’s Dominance … Is Quietly Backed by DuPont St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) — August 7, 2009 — When the Organization for Competitive Markets holds its annual conference in downtown St. Louis today, a certain target of the daylong meeting will be the king of genetically modified seed, Monsanto Co. OCM, a nonprofit based in Lincoln, Neb., has forged a reputation over the last decade for taking on big agriculture on behalf of small farmers and consumers. It filed congressional testimony and went to court to fight meat company JBS Swift’s purchase of National Beef and Smithfield Beef in 2008. It opposed Whole Foods Inc.’s purchase of Wild Oats two years ago. More recently, the company has started the “Seed Concentration Project” to put heat on Creve Coeur-based Monsanto, claiming the company controls 90 percent of the market for genetically modified seed. OCM’s stance on Monsanto isn’t news to the farmers, academics and government officials expected to attend or speak at today’s conference on competition in agriculture — a list that includes senior representatives from the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But what many of them probably don’t know is that the group is backed by Monsanto’s archrival, DuPont, a corporate Goliath in both agriculture and chemicals. “We’ve supported OCM for a number of years as we have dozens of organizations that are aligned with our belief around what’s in the best interest of our farmer customers,” said DuPont spokesman Dan Turner. “However, we don’t disclose the amount that we give to OCM or any other organization.” Turner couldn’t name any of the other organizations that DuPont supports. The company’s relationship with OCM came to light only after a Washington-based public relations firm purportedly representing OCM mistakenly included a reference to DuPont’s agricultural subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., at the bottom of an e-mailed news release promoting the St. Louis conference. In fact, DuPont and OCM are working together on a broader campaign to convince policymakers and regulators in Washington and across the Farm Belt that Monsanto’s dominance in transgenic seeds is bad for agriculture. Those efforts also include soliciting state attorneys general to investigate and possibly sue Monsanto for anti-competitive behavior. This isn’t the first time DuPont has been involved with a veiled PR campaign against Monsanto. In 2007, the company was connected to an effort to derail Monsanto’s $1.5 billion acquisition of Delta & Pine Land Co. In at least one case, a bogus opposition letter was sent to the minority leader of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Lee Quarles, a Monsanto spokesman, said the company is disappointed that DuPont has aligned itself with OCM to “spread false and misleading statements.” Monsanto also disputes that it controls 90 percent of the genetically modified seed business and that its leading position in biotech seeds is bad for farmers. To the contrary, its genetic traits, which are also licensed to DuPont and other seed companies, are sought by corn, soybean and cotton growers because they improve yield and help control insects and weeds, Quarles said. As the two largest U.S. seed companies, Monsanto and DuPont are natural rivals. But tension escalated this spring when Monsanto filed a federal lawsuit accusing DuPont of patent infringement. The lawsuit says DuPont’s plan to combine its own herbicide tolerance trait in a soybean seed along with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready gene violates terms of a 2004 license agreement. DuPont countersued weeks later, claiming the agreement allows it to combine, or “stack,” genetic traits. The company accused Monsanto of filing the lawsuit to protect its franchise at the expense of giving farmers access to better technology. Both of the lawsuits are pending in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Skirmishes between Monsanto and DuPont in and outside of the court illustrate the stakes in a global race to develop and sell new, higher-priced biotech seeds. Globally, the sale of genetically modified seed generates billions of dollars in sales annually, and both companies want a larger share. For its part, OCM has publicly decried “big agriculture” and consolidation in the agriculture industry. Yet DuPont owns the No. 2 seed company in the U.S. that just last month announced a significant increase in sales volumes. And while OCM has blasted Monsanto for filing the patent infringement lawsuit, DuPont just two months ago sued Germany’s BASF over the same kind of alleged violations. OCM, founded in 1998, calls itself a public policy research organization that “strives to bring competition back to the agriculture industry and promote fair trade.” A banner on top of the group’s website features an image of Teddy Roosevelt, the famed “trust buster” known for breaking up corporate monopolies. As recently as a couple of years ago, the group’s website claimed it didn’t accept funding from dominant firms in agriculture. That language has since been deleted. Today, OCM says only that its funding comes from “membership dues, foundations, businesses and individuals.” Fred Stokes, OCM’s executive director, refused to list its financial supporters. He said the group is willing to accept help from virtually anyone who helps further its cause. But money has never stood in the way of the group’s mission. “We don’t deviate one degree from our mission and principles for anybody,” Stokes said. OCM’s focus on the seed market, and Monsanto specifically, isn’t the reason the group chose to hold its conference in St. Louis, he said. “We’re not out on any kind of smear campaign,” Stokes said. “We’re just a bunch of redneck do-gooders out here trying to get along and tell a story that needs to be told.”