[jinx]

GM crops were supposed to feed the world cheaply, weren't they?

“Buying seed used to be not terribly costly,” said Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at the Organic Center in Boulder, Colorado, who in December completed a study of 35 years of seed pricing. “Now farmers are locked into these high seed costs on an annual basis.”
The study showed that soybean farmers spent between 4 percent and 8 percent of their farm income on seeds from 1975 through 1997. Last year, farmers who planted genetically modified soybeans spent 16.4 percent of their income on seeds, it found.
Monsanto’s licensing royalty on soybean seeds with the Roundup Ready trait climbed to $15.65 for each 140,000-seed bag last year from about $6.50 a decade ago, according to the owner of one seed company. A bag of Roundup Ready seed sells for about $35 and can plant three-quarters of an acre (0.3 hectare).

Farmers who adopt Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 Yield technology, being introduced this year as a replacement for Roundup Ready, will have to pay a royalty of as much as $39.75 a bag, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
Cal Dalton, a farmer in Pardeeville, Wisconsin, said he switched to a competitor last year when Monsanto sought a $30 price increase, to $210 a bag, for its “triple stack” corn seed, a line that resists glyphosate, rootworm, and corn borers. Monsanto still earned a royalty on the purchase because the seeds he bought carried the Roundup Ready trait, he said.
The list price for Monsanto’s “Yieldgard VT Triple” brand of triple-stack corn seed rose to about $277.50 a bag this year from $201.83 in 2008,

Anyway...
Monsanto is being investigated in 7 states for antitrust practices

Showing that Monsanto engaged in anti-competitive behavior that harmed residents of their states could enable the attorneys general to demand civil monetary damages in addition to any penalties that the Justice Department may seek, Hovenkamp said.
In one soybean licensing agreement reviewed by Bloomberg, Monsanto offered the licensee financial incentives to favor Roundup Ready seeds and Roundup brand chemicals over those of competitors. The dealer’s agreement with Monsanto is confidential, and he asked that his name not be used.


‘You Had To’
Under the agreement, the licensee would earn a rebate of 7.5 percent of the royalty it pays Monsanto if Roundup Ready accounts for 70 percent of the dealer’s annual herbicide- resistant seed sales. The rebate is halved if the Roundup Ready share is between 50 percent and 75 percent, and isn’t paid at all below 50 percent.
Similar terms were in Monsanto’s licensing agreements with Stine Seed Co. until Monsanto phased them out in recent years, according to Harry Stine, president and founder of the largest closely held seed company in the U.S., based in Adel, Iowa.
“In order to get the large rebate they would give you, you had to minimize your sales of other companies’ seeds,” Stine said. “The rebates were so large that for all practical purposes you had to do it.” At one time, the requirement for earning the full rebate was as high as 90 percent, he said. Stine has a collaborative agreement to develop seeds with Monsanto, he said.