“Big 6” Pesticide and GMO Corporations

This article is part of the Food Rights Network, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy. Find out more here.

The “Big 6” pesticide and GMO corporations are BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto, and Syngenta. They are so called because they dominate the agricultural input market — that is, they own the world’s seed, pesticide and biotechnologyindustries.^[1][2]

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), corporate concentration of the agricultural input market “has far-reaching implications for global food security, as the privatization and patenting of agricultural innovation (gene traits, transformation technologies and seed germplasm) has been supplanting traditional agricultural understandings of seed, farmers’ rights, and breeders’ rights.”^[3]

For more information, see the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA) resource here.

Related PRWatch Article

• Rebekah Wilce, Direct Democracy: Results of Ballot Propositions Across the Country, PRWatch, November 7, 2012.
• Rebekah Wilce, California GMO Labeling Supporters Confront $41 Million Opposition and 13-Point Poll Slide, PRWatch, October 25, 2012.
• Jill Richardson, Approval of New Chemical-Resistant GMOs Likely to Prompt Pesticide Escalation, PRWatch, August 28, 2012.
• Rebekah Wilce, Looking for Kids’ Books? Avoid This Propaganda, PRWatch, August 22, 2012.
• Rebekah Wilce, Three California Democrats Team Up with Monsanto, PRWatch, August 2, 2012.
• Jill Richardson, Monsanto’s Quiet Coup: Will Congress Limit Scope and Time for GMO Reviews?, PRWatch, August 1, 2012.
• Michele Simon, Fighting GMO Labeling in California is Food Lobby’s “Highest Priority”, PRWatch, August 1, 2012.

External Resources

• Pesticide Action Network of North America, Chemical Cartel, organizational website.
• Philip Mattera, Corporate Research Project, Monsanto: Corporate Rap Sheet, last modified August 18, 2013.
• Philip Mattera, Corporate Research Project, Dow Chemical: Corporate Rap Sheet, last modified December 19, 2013.
• Philip Mattera, Corporate Research Project, Dupont: Corporate Rap Sheet, last modified October 27, 2013.
• Geke Econ Meme, Is the U.S. a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Monsanto? Monsanto Venn, infographic, accessed February 2014.

External Articles and Press Releases

• Nicholas Tomasi, Monsanto On Verge of $40 Million GMO Bailout in Europe: Report, Natural Independent, November 25, 2012.
• California Right to Know, Monsanto, Pesticide Companies Contribute Another $5.5 Million to Kill GMO Labeling Initiative, campaign press release, September 17, 2012.
• Stacy Malkan, California Right to Know, Monsanto Gives $4.2 Million to Kill California GMO Labeling, campaign press release, August 15, 2012.
• Tom Philpott, Biotech Giants Are Bankrolling a GMO Free-for-All, Mother Jones, August 6, 2012.
• Kathryn Gilje, Pesticide Action Network of North America, Guilty as Charged: “The verdict was handed down to the six largest pesticide corporations — Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Dow and Dupont — collectively known as the “Big 6,” for their human rights violations, including internationally recognized rights to life, livelihood and health,” organizational blog post, December 7, 2011.

References

1. Jump up↑Pesticide Action Network of North America, Chemical Cartel, organizational website, accessed July 2012
2. Jump up↑ETC Group, Who Owns Nature? Corporate Power and the Final Frontier in the Commodification of Life, international civil society organizational report, November 2008, accessed July 2012
3. Jump up↑Olivier Matringe and Irene Musselli Moretti, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Tracking the Trend Towards Market Concentration: The Case of the Agricultural Input Industry, study prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat, April 20, 2006