Abandoned the Immortal Cultivator, returned to his hometown to farm and sing

Chapter 1304, page 1292: Simple Chaos
International seed companies are not as well-known as the four major grain traders.

But the "good deeds" they've done are by no means few.

In 2000, they stole wild soybean varieties from Northeast China and then applied for 64 patents worldwide, building up a technological barrier.

In 2003, the company first provided seeds to soybean farmers in China for free, and then turned around and sued the growers for "infringement".

They are infringing on the patents they applied for for wild soybean varieties that they stole from Northeast China.

This has forced soybean farmers to abandon domestically grown soybeans and instead rely on imports.

Then came the soybean crisis.

After the crisis, 90% of soybean varieties came from imports and licensed varieties, with patent fees accounting for more than 35% of seed costs.

So dark.

Twenty years have passed, and domestic seed companies have tried every means to circumvent patents, barely managing to raise their self-sufficiency rate to 21.3%.

Monsanto is the one that does this job.

Later, Monsanto was acquired by Bayer.

Bayer doesn't just make cockroach killers; it's the world's largest seed company.

What did Bayer do?
They bundled glyphosate herbicide and glyphosate-resistant soybean seeds together, forcing farmers to buy both, otherwise their crops would be killed by the herbicide.

This is to lock in the seed market.

In 14, a seed company in Anhui Province planned to break through this restriction.

Just as things were starting to look up, Bayer immediately filed a patent lawsuit, alleging that Bayer infringed on its glyphosate resistance patent and seeking 2000 million yuan in damages.

As a result, they lost the case and were forced to destroy the inventory and pay compensation.

In addition, they control seed companies through joint ventures and other means, restricting research and development, seed rights, and market pricing.

For example, a leading seed company is nominally only 49% owned by a seed industry giant, but it has completely lost its research and development rights.

A renowned breeding company in the 1980s and 90s, it has cultivated more than 100 corn varieties, holds 105 seed rights, and has increased corn yield per mu from 700 kilograms to 1,500 kilograms.

Now I can only do sales work.

That sounds scary, doesn't it?

Actually, this is considered good; other places are much worse.

Several international seed giants, including Bayer, Corteva, Pioneer, and Syngenta, control 56% of the world's seeds.

Because Syngenta was acquired by a domestic company, in recent years Syngenta has been "removed" of its international giant status and replaced with Limagrain.

Seed companies control the "brain" of seed research and development through gene patents and technological barriers, while grain traders control the "blood vessels" of seed distribution through logistics networks. Through cooperation and competition, they jointly build control over the global food system.
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"These international giants all emerged around the same time as Breeding 3.0 in the 1990s, including the four major grain traders."

"The current global food order is built on Breeding 3.0."

"Your current Breeding 4.0 is just digging their brains out. If it doesn't harm you, who will it harm!"

In Luo Yihang's office at Qingyin Agriculture.

Uncle Li then scolded Luo Yihang in a bad mood.

Luo Yihang rubbed his chin and chuckled, "Who picked their brains? How disgusting."

“A metaphor, do you understand metaphors!” Uncle Li continued irritably, “What I mean is, you’ve touched their very core. You’ve overturned the global food order they’ve built up over decades. The source of their existence, the foundation of their power, is going to be destroyed by you. No wonder they want to kill you.”

Hearing Uncle Li's words, Luo Yihang could still laugh and asked in return, "Are you scared?"

"I'm afraid?" Uncle Li sneered. "I'm afraid I won't be able to kill him. I should have dug him out long ago..."

A week had passed by this point, according to the testimonies of Fred, Antoine, old Arnault, and the bodyguard, as well as the information they kept about their interactions with Red Wolf.

There might be some secret channels as well.

With the help of think tank experts piecing together and deducing, these pieces of the puzzle gradually revealed their true form.

At least the enemy has been identified.

These are the international seed giants and grain traders that Antoine mentioned.

As Uncle Li said, everything they do is based on Breeding 3.0 technology, which centers on genetic engineering and molecular breeding.

Only a handful of giants worldwide possess Breeding 3.0 technology and have taken the lead in building it.

Elsewhere, traditional breeding, or what we call experience-based breeding 2.0 technology, is still being used.

Including domestically.

It wasn't taken seriously in the 1990s, and we didn't have the capability then. Then, in the early 2000s, our base was compromised.

When they finally took it seriously and started to catch up, they ran into patent barriers.

If you're slow at one step, you'll be slow at every step; it's still only between 2.0 and 3.0.

Those seed industry giants and grain traders have tasted the sweetness of Breeding 3.0, and of course they want to continue.

Breeding 4.0, the next generation of breeding technology after Breeding 3.0, is based on multi-gene intelligent design using gene editing, big data simulation, and whole-genome selection.

This is an industry consensus, and reputable institutions are all conducting research on it.

They are not afraid at all.

No matter how much others study, because their foundation is shallow and they've skipped a generation, there are pitfalls all ahead of them, so how can they make progress as fast as them?

So when they learned that a company in the East called Qingyin Agriculture had set up a Breeding 4.0 laboratory, they didn't care at all.

Because there are too many.

Even though Qingyin Agriculture produced results, using peas in its Xiaoman No. 1 vegetable, they only glanced at it and then threw it aside.

Even for them, it is estimated that it will take ten to fifteen years to achieve the success of Breeding 4.0 technology.

How could a small, unheard-of company pull this off?

Definitely fake.

However, after Tangdundun, especially after Qiuyan No. 9 came out.

They couldn't sit still any longer.

Damn, it's actually true!
An unknown small company actually managed to get ahead of them!

Can we tolerate this? No, we absolutely cannot!
Either kill him or take him.

Damn, it's an Eastern company, so many common tactics can't be used.

The food war of more than a decade ago terrified them. In recent years, they have been continuously promoting the self-reliance of seed industry technology domestically, and competing for ports in Brazil and building agricultural bases in Africa, threatening the logistics hegemony of Bunge and Cargill.

And legislation continues to be enacted.

For example, prohibiting foreign investment in wild germplasm resources and making natural gene sequences non-patentable are aimed at these seed industry giants.

There is little cooperation, many wars, and the situation is out of control.

In South America, they practically beat each other senseless.

Unlike other places, they don't have the ability to simply say a few words and have the locals obediently hand over their industries.

There was no other way but to use traditional methods: invest capital, hold shares, and gradually acquire the company.

The results of the investigation.

Was the person in charge of Nima Qingyin Agriculture dug out of a grave?

They refuse investment, are unwilling to go public, and won't even take out a loan.

He owns 98% of Qingyin Agriculture, while his parents hold the remaining 2%.

The other industries were broken up in a mess, with interconnected structures and nepotism.

You have absolutely no sense of modern entrepreneurship! What makes you think you can have Breeding 4.0?! What makes you think you're not bankrupt yet?!
Damn, this is like a tortoise; there's nowhere to start.

As for why he was dragged into this mess...

It's because they finally found an opportunity.

A perfume brand called Zuike, under Qingyin Agriculture, has gotten into a fight with the long-established luxury goods company LVMH.

They actually won.

The seed company was involved in that war from beginning to end.

They also keenly identified the weaknesses of Qingyin Agriculture.

Why did Qingyin Agriculture suddenly start making perfumes, and sell them at such high prices? The flagship store is decorated in such an extravagant style, and even the opening ceremony was a big-budget affair.

To protect and support them, they even created a super Oriental Commodity City.

For the sake of perfume, they were willing to challenge the luxury goods giant LVMH Group.

During the war, they even used off-site resources to reveal the desertification control plants they were researching.

Why pay such a high price? Of course, it's for money.

They also study Breeding 4.0 and know that this technology requires a huge amount of resources, manpower, materials, and money, and it requires continuous investment, and they don't know how long it will take.

Selling sugar, chili sauce, konjac snacks, and fried mushrooms certainly can't support the research investment required for Breeding 4.0.

Therefore, Qingyin Agriculture's funding comes from Zuike Perfume.

Next, it was only natural to urge the LVMH Group to continue fighting, regardless of winning or losing, as long as they could break Qingyin Agriculture's cash flow, they could fish in troubled waters.

They are ready to inject capital into the LVMH Group, thereby forcing Arnault to continue the fight.

LVMH Group lost, and its stock price was greatly affected. In order to make the financial report look good, Arnault has to find money to save himself.

As it turned out, after waiting and waiting, old Arnault was not short of money at all, and his financial statements were very impressive, showing steady growth.

Where did he get the money?
Someone beat me to it?

Later investigations revealed that the LVMH Group had obtained the formula for the Drunken Master perfume and was actually manufacturing counterfeit Drunken Master perfume to supplement the group's revenue.

The mastermind behind this was his eldest son, Antoine.

I didn't realize this rich kid was so capable.

When they received this intelligence, the people at the think tank almost burst out laughing.

They knew the inside story. They never expected that the reason they made up to deceive Bianchi would actually be the same one the other side had in mind.

What was even more unexpected was that Federico, the fat man who loved telling corny jokes and was purely, purely, money-loving, had an unexpected benefit from casually passing the buck, which ended up trapping Antoine.

It was Bianchi who revealed the inside story.

Although old Arnault also discovered something and even probed Louis Dafu, the D in ABCD.

However, in recent years, apart from stabilizing the African market, this D has become increasingly focused on soft goods, such as coffee and sugar, and has not been involved in staple foods. Its share in finance and shipping has also increased, and it is less willing to cooperate with them.

The other companies also felt that the three major grain traders, ABC, were doing quite well.

Moreover, Louis Dreyfus received investment from Abu Dhabi, holding a 45% stake, so it's even less likely they'll be included.

So D really doesn't know much about the inside story.

As for Arnault, the older ones are not as easy to control as the younger ones.

So the seed industry giants pulled Antoine into the fray, urging him to keep striving and making progress.

Counterfeit goods squeeze out the market share of genuine goods, suppressing them until they can't hold their heads high.

Cutting off Qingyin Agriculture's funding chain, even if it only has an impact, would be good.

Antoine is also worried that his sister will take away his inheritance rights, so he is eager to bring in external forces to boost his chances.

Those seed companies and grain traders are backed by forces that are also shareholders of the LVMH Group.

Anyway, the relationships among these Western conglomerates are a mess.

In any case, the two hit it off immediately.

Those seed industry giants also placed liaisons around him through Red Wolf, who served as both monitors and scapegoats, while also preparing Plan B.

That bodyguard did four jobs for one cent.

As a result, the waiting continued, whether on the left or the right.

After waiting and waiting, the result was Super Malan Grass and Glue 77, which caught them off guard.

Plan B actually came in handy...
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"No, I didn't want to invest because it wasn't necessary. If I really needed money, I would borrow from friends, or even take out a loan, right?" Luo Yihang found their thinking quite strange; the foundation of their entire plan was actually based on his personality.

"Hehe." Uncle Li chuckled mysteriously, "Of course they have a backup plan. When they realize your cash flow is broken, they will immediately hype up food safety issues and put pressure on banks to not lend you money. How much can you borrow then?"

"You can only seek financing; we've already prepared financing channels for you."

"Even if you stubbornly hold on, you can still delay the progress."

"They're going to win either way."

Alright, he has more information.

Luo Yihang sneered, "They're thinking too simply. I get money from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). SASAC doesn't care about public opinion, so why wouldn't they invest in me?"

Uncle Li nodded this time, "They really oversimplified things. They thought the cultivation cycle for desertification control plants would be very long. Even though they have shown some progress, it would still take at least five or six years to truly succeed."

"Nobody expected that you could cultivate Super Malan Grass in just over a year, and even have a 'Jiao Qi Qi' (a type of herb)."

Speaking of this, Uncle Li sighed, "Alas, just like back then, nobody knew that Breeding 3.0 would be so powerful, that genes could be patented, that it could change the world order, and that it could even create food hegemony."

"Now that we've reached Breeding 4.0, those guys didn't expect this. It's time for them to experience what it's like to be chased from behind..."

Luo Yihang rubbed his nose and said modestly, "I was lucky."

That's definitely good luck.

Who would have thought that watching a rocket launch would lead to meeting Professor Cheng?

Who would have thought that going to find petrified wood and incidentally scare Jacques would lead to an unexpected discovery of a tetraploid giant dandelion?

The two core parent lines were obtained in this way.

No one could have imagined that Luo Yihang would "throw his shoe".

Open-book exams are certainly faster.

Uncle Li nodded again, continuing Luo Yihang's words, "You were really lucky. If it had dragged on any longer, that fat Italian man would probably have been exposed, and LVMH would have recovered and launched a counterattack, really cutting off your cash flow, or you would have fallen into their trap."

"They didn't fall in, which only drove them to desperation," Luo Yihang said nonchalantly.

But speaking of this, there's another question: "What's the point of them killing me? They should be destroying the lab. Even if they have to kill someone, killing Wenying would be more effective."

"That's outrageous! Killing anyone is unacceptable!" Uncle Li glared angrily at Luo Yihang.

"Your place is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with only one road leading in. How could you possibly get in and cause damage?"

"Go over the mountain? Spies are easy to find, but agents aren't so easy to send in. Sending those clerical intelligence gatherers over the mountain is too much of a chore; they don't have the stamina. Even if they get inside, they'll just get carried off by wild animals."

“You also have a radar that covers an area of ​​ten kilometers, so that even a fly can’t get in.”

"Those people aren't gods."

That's right, Ping'an Gully is a place with excellent feng shui; even bandits couldn't get in back then.

"As for Wenying, she usually stays at home and rarely goes out. Even when she does go out, she is accompanied by guards. How could they possibly have a chance?"

"You brat," Uncle Li said angrily, "you always run around everywhere, never stopping for a moment."

At this point, Uncle Li became earnest again, "I know you can fight, you're good at kung fu, but you're still just a mortal, so you should still have security personnel..."

Luo Yihang chuckled, "Where did I run off to? I'm a total homebody. You still haven't told me what the benefits are of messing with me."

Seeing that Luo Yihang didn't respond, she abruptly changed the subject, knowing that he was still unwilling.

Uncle Li could only sigh and then continued.

“You are the foundation of this whole operation. Without you, Qingyin Agriculture will inevitably fall into chaos.”

“You’re not married, you don’t have children, and you have no heirs.”

"If you're gone, how will your inheritance be divided? How will your shares be divided?"

"To put it bluntly, your parents are just ordinary farmers who were casually pushed out to be mascots, and they couldn't control them."

"At that time, whether it's promoting an IPO or attracting foreign investment, everything will be easy."

"How many people can resist the temptation of making big amounts of money?"

At this point, Uncle Li looked at Luo Yihang strangely.

"It's strange, sometimes I feel like you're not like a young man. What do you like? You don't care about money, you don't care about women, you don't touch anything like sensual pleasures."

"You keep talking about being a capitalist, like it's on a street lamp. You're worth hundreds of billions, but you still live in your grandfather's old house. All you own are a few cars, and they're not even sports cars."

"What exactly are you after?"

Luo Yihang smiled but did not answer.

What's he after? He's cultivating immortality, and he wants to live to be two hundred years old.

Money is enough; nothing beats the pleasure of learning etiquette and Taoist scriptures.
Luo Yihang is now at the sixth level of Qi Refining, and he feels like he's become a superman.

In martial arts novels, they would be among the Five Greats of the World, like Guo Jing and Yang Guo.

If you advance a few more levels, you should switch from Jin Yong to Huang Yi, like the works of The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Demon Master Pang Ban.

Once they reach the Foundation Establishment stage, they'll surely become earthly immortals.

That was so satisfying...
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"No, I need revenge, otherwise I won't be able to let my mind be at peace."

(End of this chapter)