Monsanto is going to be investigated by the Justice Department for anti-trust violations.
During the Bush administration, the Justice Department did not file a single case under antimonopoly laws regulating a dominant firm. But that stretch seems unlikely to continue.
This year, the Obama Justice Department tossed out the antitrust guidelines of its predecessor because they advocated ‘extreme hesitancy in the face of potential abuses by monopoly firms.’
‘We must change course,’ Christine Varney, the Obama administration’s chief antitrust enforcer, said at the time.
Of all the new scrutiny by Justice, the Monsanto investigation might have the highest stakes, dealing as it does with the food supply and one of the nation’s largest agricultural firms. It could also force the Obama administration, already under fire for the government’s expanded role in the economy, to explain how it distinguishes between normal rough-and-tumble competition and abusive monopolistic business practices.
Monsanto says it has done nothing wrong.
If you’ve seen The Corporation or Food, Inc., you’ll know what Monsanto is up to. Roughly 90 percent of the soy bean supply, for example, comes from engineered Monsanto seeds. And they’ve patented the seeds, so any seed that accidentally drops into a non-Monsanto field is a lawsuit worthy trespass against the unknowing farmer. As corporations go, Monsanto is easily the worst of the worst.
