Graphic Depictions of the Seed Industry

The seed industry's consolidation over the past decade or so has been so monumental and complex that it would be nearly impossible to describe in text. Luckily, Phil Howard, an agriculture professor at Michigan State University, has assembled several graphical representations that give an idea not only of how the biggest companies have been gobbling up smaller ones, but also of how much "cooperation" there is among them.

In fact, the most interesting graphic of the bunch is the one depicting the agreements among the biggest seed companies to share patents on "seed traits" such as tolerance to herbicides and production (by crops) of insecticides.

("Seed companies," it should be noted, is accurate, but doesn't really do justice to the industry's makeup. As Howard's graphics make clear, several of the biggest ones are actually "pharmaceutical/chemical companies" such as Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, and Monsanto, the latter being the dominant player.)

Not surprisingly, Monsanto sits squarely in the middle of all these graphics. Also included: a video representation of the industry's consolidation since 1996. The result looks like a video game, sort of like Pac-Man, with the big companies jumping around the screen, gobbling up smaller ones. Monsanto is the hungriest, but the others are no slouches.