Monsanto and Agriculture Reporting

My old friend Russell Mokhiber at the Corporate Crime Reporter wrote last week about Learfield Communication's recent decision to cancel the show of farm broadcaster Derry Brownfield for comments related to Monsanto on his April 16 show. Brownfield criticized Monsanto for its ruthless tactics in enforcing seed patents with farmers. He quoted from an excellent article in the May issue of Vanity Fair by Donald Bartlett and James Steele, which chronicles the company's heavy-handed legal tactics.

The legal threat for farmers from biotech seed companies is not new. This issue spurred us to publish the report GMO Liability Threats to Farmers in 2001. The Center for Food Safety has documented over 100 cases where Monsanto has sued farmers over patent issues.

But aside from topic of Brownfield's last show, Mokhiber's story really points to a darkening shadow hanging over the dwindling number of farm and agriculture reporters in the U.S. - particularly at farm radio shows, magazines and weeklies. These farm media are heavily dependent on major agribusiness companies for advertising revenue. And as the U.S. agribusiness sector has become further concentrated, the agriculture press is forced to rely on fewer companies for a larger slice of their advertising.

The result is that the mainstream farm press, with a few exceptions, often misses big parts of the story when they cover hot button issues like the Farm Bill, trade agreements or rising agriculture prices. It is impossible to fully cover agriculture without reporting on how big companies benefit from the system. And more importantly, the whole story cannot be told without explaining how farmers' interests are distinctly different from major farm press advertisers like Monsanto and Cargill.