From news release from accuracy.org: "Dow – DuPont Merger: Perpetuating GMOs, Squeezing Farmers and Consumers?" --
Wenonah Hauter is the founder and executive director of Food & Water Watch and the author of Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America. She said today: “Just a handful of large chemical companies including Dow and DuPont already control most of the seed supply used to grow crops like corn and soybeans, as well as the herbicides that genetically engineered seeds are designed to be grown with. Any merger that consolidates this market into fewer hands will give farmers fewer choices and put them at even more economic disadvantage. And it will make it harder for agriculture to get off the GMO-chemical treadmill that just keeps increasing in speed. The Department of Justice needs to block this merger to prevent the further corporate control of the basic building blocks of the food supply.”
Diana Moss is president of the American Antitrust Institute. She said today: “Any merger on the agricultural inputs side of DuPont and Dow will get antitrust scrutiny. Some of the markets for biotech and seeds are highly concentrated, which has been driven by Monsanto having made so many acquisitions in the past. If you put a new merger in the this mix, it’s going to raise concerns about leaving only two or maybe three firms. That’s a market landscape that doesn’t promote competition, entry, and innovation. Farmers could be squeezed even more and consumers could pay higher prices.”
Wenonah Hauter is the founder and executive director of Food & Water Watch and the author of Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America. She said today: “Just a handful of large chemical companies including Dow and DuPont already control most of the seed supply used to grow crops like corn and soybeans, as well as the herbicides that genetically engineered seeds are designed to be grown with. Any merger that consolidates this market into fewer hands will give farmers fewer choices and put them at even more economic disadvantage. And it will make it harder for agriculture to get off the GMO-chemical treadmill that just keeps increasing in speed. The Department of Justice needs to block this merger to prevent the further corporate control of the basic building blocks of the food supply.”
Diana Moss is president of the American Antitrust Institute. She said today: “Any merger on the agricultural inputs side of DuPont and Dow will get antitrust scrutiny. Some of the markets for biotech and seeds are highly concentrated, which has been driven by Monsanto having made so many acquisitions in the past. If you put a new merger in the this mix, it’s going to raise concerns about leaving only two or maybe three firms. That’s a market landscape that doesn’t promote competition, entry, and innovation. Farmers could be squeezed even more and consumers could pay higher prices.”
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Notes Rick Hind of Greenpeace:
In 2014 Dow began selling off their chlorine units. This may be an attempt to mitigate their liability but may also leave workers and communities facing the same hazards run by different corporate entities.
Dupont may have similar goals in selling their T2 (titanium dioxide) division which could transfer a large hazardous chlorine process to other firms, leaving in place catastrophic hazards for workers and communities:http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/04/22/dupont-should-sell-tio2-unit-deutsche-bank/
Also apparently this merger will also create a new ag-chemicals co. It seems like at least one goal is to separate the mother ship from the catastrophic liability associated with a disaster or what the railroads admitted to us, "a company ending event." After all Warren Buffet (owner of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway) is also the largest single Dow shareholder.
Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disaster web site including incident count listing over 400 serious incidents since April 17th West, TX disaster which triggered Obama executive order (#13650) and pending EPA rules due March 2016:
http://preventchemicaldisasters.org/resources/158971-2/
Fatal 2014 duPont accident under investigation by CSB: http://www.csb.gov/investigations/
Catastrophic liability by Dow and duPont raised by Greenpeace in letters to each company, Warren Buffet (Dow's largest stockholder) and the Securities Exchange Commission:
• Greenpeace Letter to Warren Buffett on Dow Chemical Company’s Catastrophic Liability, dated May 9, 2011 http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5935
• Greenpeace Letter to Dow Chemical Company on Catastrophic Liability dated May 9, 2011 http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5936 •
“Bibliography and Quotations – Dow,” archived May 9, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5930
• List of Dow Chemical Company’s RMP facilities, archived May 9, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5929
• Excerpts from 10-K filings of Railroad Companies including Buffet's railroad) on Liability of TIH gases, archived May 10, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5939
• Greenpeace Letter to Securities Exchange Commission re: Underreporting of Catastrophic Liability by Chemical Companies, dated May 11, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5941
• Greenpeace Letter to Dupont on Catastrophic Liability, dated April 22, 2011 http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5923
• “Bibliography and Quotations – DuPont,” archived April 26, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5919
• List of Dupont’s RMP facilities, archived April 26, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5922
• List of Dupont’s RMP facilities organized by state, archived May 9, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5932
Other questions about merger:
-- Will the Justice Department ensure that there is no diminution of liability for past and future accidents, poisonings, Superfund clean ups and other historical liabilities (ie., Dow's inherited liability from the Union Carbide Bhopal disaster)
-- Potentially large job losses
-- Reduced competition and innovation, ie., green chemistry
-- Lost opportunity for job gains by converting plants to safer processes
http://www.misi-net.com/publications/GreenpeaceSummary-0710.pdf
http://www.reuters.com/article/dowchemicalunits-ma-idUSL2N0RO1OV20140925and
Dupont may have similar goals in selling their T2 (titanium dioxide) division which could transfer a large hazardous chlorine process to other firms, leaving in place catastrophic hazards for workers and communities:http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/04/22/dupont-should-sell-tio2-unit-deutsche-bank/
Also apparently this merger will also create a new ag-chemicals co. It seems like at least one goal is to separate the mother ship from the catastrophic liability associated with a disaster or what the railroads admitted to us, "a company ending event." After all Warren Buffet (owner of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway) is also the largest single Dow shareholder.
Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disaster web site including incident count listing over 400 serious incidents since April 17th West, TX disaster which triggered Obama executive order (#13650) and pending EPA rules due March 2016:
http://preventchemicaldisasters.org/resources/158971-2/
Fatal 2014 duPont accident under investigation by CSB: http://www.csb.gov/investigations/
Catastrophic liability by Dow and duPont raised by Greenpeace in letters to each company, Warren Buffet (Dow's largest stockholder) and the Securities Exchange Commission:
• Greenpeace Letter to Warren Buffett on Dow Chemical Company’s Catastrophic Liability, dated May 9, 2011 http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5935
• Greenpeace Letter to Dow Chemical Company on Catastrophic Liability dated May 9, 2011 http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5936 •
“Bibliography and Quotations – Dow,” archived May 9, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5930
• List of Dow Chemical Company’s RMP facilities, archived May 9, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5929
• Excerpts from 10-K filings of Railroad Companies including Buffet's railroad) on Liability of TIH gases, archived May 10, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5939
• Greenpeace Letter to Securities Exchange Commission re: Underreporting of Catastrophic Liability by Chemical Companies, dated May 11, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5941
• Greenpeace Letter to Dupont on Catastrophic Liability, dated April 22, 2011 http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5923
• “Bibliography and Quotations – DuPont,” archived April 26, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5919
• List of Dupont’s RMP facilities, archived April 26, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5922
• List of Dupont’s RMP facilities organized by state, archived May 9, 2011http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/index.php?a=view&d=5932
Other questions about merger:
-- Will the Justice Department ensure that there is no diminution of liability for past and future accidents, poisonings, Superfund clean ups and other historical liabilities (ie., Dow's inherited liability from the Union Carbide Bhopal disaster)
-- Potentially large job losses
-- Reduced competition and innovation, ie., green chemistry
-- Lost opportunity for job gains by converting plants to safer processes
http://www.misi-net.com/publications/GreenpeaceSummary-0710.pdf