Don small farmers need these types of new technologies—that is, value-added crops—in order to stay in business?
Yes. They do. And we support new value-added crops that will help farmers improve their bottom lines. But this report finds that farmers are unlikely to be major beneficiaries of pharma crop production for two reasons. First, they will not have a strong position from which to negotiate with pharma crop companies. Market forces, including foreign competition, will drive farmer compensation down to the lowest levels that pharma crop companies can achieve. Second, the acreage likely required for a successful pharma crop industry is so small compared with commodity crop acreage that only a small number of growers will be needed.
