Ag Mergers Will Draw Senate Scrutiny Next Week

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has scheduled some must-see TV for farmers and other involved in the seed, biotechnology and chemical mergers.  Grassley released a witness list late Wednesday for the Sept. 20 hearing by his committee -- Consolidation and Competition in the U.S. Seed and Agrochemical Industry. The hearing will include five of the major players in the current wave of industry acquisitions: the president and CEO of Dow AgroSciences, the CEO of Syngenta International AG, the president and CEO of Bayer CropScience North America, the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Monsanto Co., and the executive vice president of the agriculture division for DuPont and Co.  Along with those executives, the committee hear from the president of the National Farmers Union, the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, the chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation and the president of the American Antitrust Institute.