Relative to crop commodity prices that U.S. farmers received since 1994, agricultural input prices have risen consistently with seed prices almost doubling. According to USDA’s Economic Research Services, this increase was due, at least in part, to the increase in value-added characteristics developed by private seed and biotechnology companies through R&D programs. The sharp rise in the price of fertilizer in 2008-09 was driven by a significant increase in the cost of energy and materials…