Interestingly enough, just as the momentum of food chain scenario for the multinationals was beginning to slow, another unforeseen event took place that rekindled the acquisition fever. This was the discovery of double helix by Watson and Crick, which unleashed the profound new science of plant biotechnology. Almost overnight, the price of seed companies ramped up, and then some, as the competition to acquire became fevered. Row crop companies, i.e. hybrid seed corn and soybean seed, were the favored targets. But, vegetables, sorghum, even grasses, showed up on the acquisition list. Running through every thoughtful seedsmens’ mind was the question of the future; were the local, regional and national seed firms going to become extinct? Were the multinationals going to run the whole seed world; were the giants going to up prices and their profit margins and would this hurt the farming community? There were more questions than answers. Fear was in the air. Those multinationals that had acquired early in the "food chain" scenario now looked very wise indeed as the value of their seed company investments escalated.