Corporate Concentration and Technological Change in the Global Seed Industry
Economie Publique, AgroParisTech, INRA, Université Paris-Saclay, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France
Sustainability 2017, 9(9), 1632; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091632
Received: 12 July 2017
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Revised: 1 September 2017
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Accepted: 6 September 2017
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Published: 14 September 2017
(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Agriculture)
In the past three decades, the seed sector has experienced, and is now again experiencing, corporate concentration trends. The fallout of this consolidation is the subject of numerous concerns. However, the seed sector is rather poorly understood. Thus, it is useful to understand it better and to investigate the potential impact on the agri-food chain of the trend toward increased corporate concentration. The first part of this paper presents the main characteristics of the global seed sector, its stakeholders, and its size in the agri-food chain. Next, the corporate consolidation trends of the seed industry over the past two years are examined. The technological evolution of the seed sector is also briefly presented. In the last part of this paper, the fallout of recent mergers and acquisitions in the seed industry are analyzed. Opposing views are expressed on the impact of these mergers and acquisitions in the agri-food chain: while certain stakeholders worry about the risk of food power by the biggest companies, some others expect useful innovations.
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Keywords:
seed; seed industry; seed company; agri-food chain; corporate concentration; consolidation; biotechnology; plant breeding; controversy; agriculture
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MDPI and ACS Style
Bonny, S. Corporate Concentration and Technological Change in the Global Seed Industry. Sustainability 2017, 9, 1632. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091632
AMA Style
Bonny S. Corporate Concentration and Technological Change in the Global Seed Industry. Sustainability. 2017; 9(9):1632. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091632
Chicago/Turabian StyleBonny, Sylvie. 2017. "Corporate Concentration and Technological Change in the Global Seed Industry" Sustainability 9, no. 9: 1632. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9091632
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