"(Farmers are) going to get stuck with high prices and no competitors,” Harwood Schaffer, an agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee, told Bloomberg. “At some point there needs to be a shift in government policy towards these mergers.”
Many companies are engaging in discussions about mergers or acquisitions in 2016.
Dow Chemical Co. is looking to merge with DuPont, China National Chemical has recently extended its tender offer in its purchase of Syngenta, and Bayer recently upped its bid to purchase Monsanto.
However, some farmers fear that speaking out against these mergers could hurt them financially.
“There’s a real trepidation,” Roger Johnson, president of the Farmers Union and former agricultural commissioner of North Dakota, told Bloomberg. “If you’re a farmer who’s a seed dealer, and you’re marketing whatever brand, and you’re quoted as saying something about that company, maybe you’re no longer a seed dealer anymore.”