Antitrust Enforcers Begin Visiting Farm Belt

Antitrust Enforcers Begin Visiting Farm Belt
Scott Kilman
Wall Street Journal
August 8 2009
[shortened]

ST. LOUIS—The Obama administration will take an extensive look at
concentration in U.S. agriculture as part of its increased emphasis on antitrust
enforcement, a Justice Department official said Friday.

Philip J. Weiser, a telecommunications-law expert who was recently named deputy
assistant attorney general, told a farmer gathering here that federal antitrust
regulators are “committed to examining” the level of competition in several
agribusiness sectors, such as the marketing of genetically modified seed, dairy
processing and meatpacking.

Washington has often sympathized with farmers who find themselves selling their
commodities to fewer and larger processors. But the Obama administration is
taking a further step, with plans for a nationwide series of sessions next year
for the U.S. Agriculture Department to hear competitive concerns of farmers.
Mr. Weiser’s remarks are another sign the Obama administration intends to step
up enforcement of antitrust laws. In May, the Justice Department’s antitrust
division withdrew anti-monopoly legal guidelines issued under the Bush
administration and signaled closer scrutiny of some industries.

While Mr. Weiser didn’t single out any agricultural companies for criticism, his
30-minute appearance came in the hometown of St. Louis crop-biotechnology titan
Monsanto Co., where he addressed the annual convention of a farmers advocacy
group called the Organization for Competitive Markets. Officials of the group
have complained about Monsanto’s dominance over genetically modified seeds.
The vast majority of the genetically modified crops grown in the U.S. farm belt
contains at least one gene from Monsanto.

-Evan Perez in Washington contributed to this article. 

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