Story highlights Monsanto, the world's largest seed seller, is the target of a takeover bid from Bayer

Leah Douglas: Deal would further concentrate power in already highly consolidated industry

Leah Douglas is a reporter and policy analyst with the Open Markets program at New America. She is the editor of Food & Power, a resource on consolidation in the food system. Follow her @leahjdouglas. The views expressed are her own.

(CNN) Bayer's announcement that it intends to buy Monsanto, the world's largest seed producer, shocked farmers and consumers alike. The deal could have a profound -- and negative -- effect.

Seed prices could rise for farmers, consumers could see more genetically engineered foods on supermarket shelves, and our global agricultural system could end up depending on just a few companies to meet a high percentage of the world's agricultural needs.

In short, the $62 billion deal would further concentrate power in an already highly consolidated global seed and chemical industry.

Leah Douglas

It's time for anti-trust regulators, who have been allowing mergers and acquisitions such as this for decades, to look closely at how allowing this merger could hurt farmers and the environment.

Bayer-Monsanto is the latest in a series of high-profile mega-mergers proposed in the agricultural industry. Dow Chemical's planned merger with DuPont, and ChemChina's acquisition of Syngenta are both under review by regulators. A merger between St. Louis-based Monsanto and Germany's Bayer could further increase prices and limit options for farmers.