Walking into a meeting Thursday night in Ankeny, Iowa, --- just down the road from where the Department of Justice and USDA will hold today's competition hearing --- it was evident there will be a lot of spotlight on today's hearing. When an unofficial meeting is standing-room only, you can only imagine how many people will be at the official event. Sitting over in a corner was Reuters reporter Carey Gilliam, who wrote as I did that some farm groups want to "Bust Up Big Ag."

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It's not hard to imagine who drew the wrath of comments, the largest packers and the dominant company in commercial seed patents. Still if there was any doubt that today's hearing is going to draw a crowd, you can just scan some of the different publications previewing the meeting, including Business Week, the LA Times and New York Times.

Business Week has an article stating that prior court rulings suggest Monsanto's patents in seeds may trump any competition concerns despite the investigations by DOJ and potentially seven state attorneys general.

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The LA Times had an article stating "Many experts believe that rising food prices start with seeds." That's because of consolidation in the industry but also complaints about unfair business practices.

"There's a growing sentiment in this White House administration that competition, and the lack of it, is getting to be a serious problem in the food sector," said Neil E. Harl, an Iowa farmer and a retired Iowa State University economics professor (who will speak on one of the panels today). "The question will be whether the government will, after these hearings, take a more active approach."

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The New York Times reported, "During the depths of the economic crisis last year, the prices for many goods held steady or even dropped. But on American farms, the picture was far different, as farmers watched the price they paid for seeds skyrocket. Corn seed prices rose 32 percent; soybean seeds were up 24 percent."

Later in the article the Times writes, "In a recent interview at Monsanto’s headquarters in St. Louis, its chief executive, Hugh Grant, said that while his company might be the market leader, competition was increasing as the era of biotech crops matured.

“We were the first out of the blocks, and I think what you see now is a bunch of people catching up and aggressively competing, and I’m fighting with them,” Mr. Grant said. He said farmers chose the company’s products because they liked the results in the field, not because of any untoward conduct on Monsanto’s part.

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I can be found on Twitter at chrisclaytonDTN