Iowa Fertilizer Company to be acquired by Koch Industries [Video]

NEVADA, Iowa — More than 100 people, including farmers and state representatives, packed the Gatherings Farmhouse in Nevada Saturday morning to express their concerns over a potential violation in antitrust laws regarding a recent billion dollar sale of Iowa Fertilizer Company to Koch Industries.

The sale would include the purchase of Iowa Fertilizer Company’s plant OCI Nitrogen Iowa in southeastern Iowa and could affect the hundreds of employees who have worked at the facility since it opened in 2017.

“It truly can be devastating to us, because I don’t think that some of the other companies, the closer one being Koch, I don’t think that they would be as concerned about what they’re doing to competition,” said John Whitaker, a former Iowa state representative. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent Chair Lina M. Khan to Nevada for the listening session Saturday. Khan reassured the …