A planned $66 billion mega-merger between Bayer and Monsanto concerns people in the local agriculture community.

Anything that impacts agri-business ultimately impacts what families pay for their food.

People see the number of companies serving agri-business dwindling as smaller companies become larger ones through mergers. Mergers by Dow and DuPont and ChemChina-Syngenta last year have “re-shaped” the global markets, according to a recent essay by the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska. 

Bayer, headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, provides health care and agriculture products and has 116,800 employees around the globe. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, has 20,000 world-wide employees and produces seeds for fruits, vegetables and key crops.

The merger, still in the regulatory review stage, would create the world’s largest supplier of seeds and agricultural chemicals. Bayer has even put a $2 billion reserve anti-trust break fee on the table “… reaffirming its confidence that it will obtain the necessary regulatory approvals,” according a fact sheet released from the two companies. 

Randy Mann of Simpson County said Monday that he doesn’t see any benefit to local farmers in the merger.

“I’m not really in favor of it,” Mann said. Now retired, Mann is a former chairman of the United Soybean Council.

Mann said he has been pleased by past efforts of Monsanto to use its dollars to research seed technology but doesn’t like the bigger is better mantra of similar worldwide businesses.

“They just keep getting bigger and bigger,” Mann said.

Joanna Coles, extension agent for the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service in Warren County, said when she first started, there might have been 20 seed and agricultural chemical companies. Now there are about half that many.

Coles said the Bayer-Monsanto merger isn’t a frequent topic of conversation among farmers; however, they realize that the business landscape for seeds and chemicals is changing through the mergers.

“It will be more of a monopoly,” Mann said. “Competition thus far has been good for us.”

The Center for Rural Affairs, formed in 1973, is a private, not-for-profit organization which works to strengthen small businesses, family farms, ranches and rural communities. It doesn’t like the merger either.

“As giant transnational corporations increase their power over the market, independent farmers are left with fewer options and suffer from less competition between input providers,” the center’s essay noted.

“The vision for this combination was born out of that desire to help farmers grow more with less,” said Hugh Grant, chairman and chief executive officer of Monsanto, in a video interview.

— Follow business reporter Charles A. Mason on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.