U.S. government investigates high input costs

Crop input prices are under scrutiny in the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have signed a memorandum of understanding to investigate rising seed, fertilizer and pesticide costs. It was also the subject of a recent hearing by the U.S. Senate’s judiciary committee. Why it Matters: High input costs are squeezing farm margins. Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said there are no similar antitrust investigations happening in Canada. “The horse has already left the barn in a lot of cases because there has been such consolidation,” he said. “This type of looking into things should have happened a long time ago.” The CFA would like the Competition Bureau to revisit its approval of Bunge Ltd.’s US$8.2 billion acquisition of Viterra Ltd. Currie said the review was too focused on high-level issues and did not pay enough attention to people on the ground. “We’ve heard from dozens of producer groups saying ...