What is driving this unification of the food, agricultural products and pharmaceutical industries?
Mooney: There are three reasons. One is they’re all using the same technology — mixing and matching genes, playing with DNA. Once you’ve got some control over the technology you can apply it across a very wide spectrum of end products. The second reason is that the method of control is identical. The need to use monopolistic forms of intellectual property to gain control of markets is similar. Thirdly, the products actually do fit together. These things can be blended together. Food after all can be described as a pharmaceutical product vital to human health. The reverse is more the case — medicine can be seen as a supplement to food. When they put those two together into a package and market them to consumers through retail outlets it makes sense. MM: What are some of the implications of this concentration in the life sciences industry? Mooney: We’ve talked with companies who agree with us that there’s a scenario emerging where when a family chooses to conceive they will have their
