Structural Change in the Biotech Seed and Chemical Industrial Complex

five years by the “coming of age” of agricultural biotechnology. Perhaps a more appropriate metaphor would be the birth and the preschool years of the first set of commercial products from recombinant DNA technology. We have witnessed much laboratory development, field testing, and seeking of regulatory approval in the United States (U.S.) and abroad in the last decade. Finally, the first significant commercial sales of biotechnology products have materialized; products like herbicide and insect resistant seed varieties in corn, soybeans, and cotton (Hayenga, 1988; Kimle & Hayenga, 1993; Carlson, Marra, & Hubbell, 1997). These sales are merely the tip of the iceberg.