The U.S. Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into crop-biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. as it contends with the loss of patent protection on its blockbuster soybean in 2014.

Monsanto on Thursday received a formal demand from the Justice Department for information about the St. Louis company’s business practices surrounding its Roundup Ready soybean, the nation’s most popular genetically-modified crop.
[MONSANTO] Reuters Soybean specialist Nancy Brumley tied up a soybean stalk in a Monsanto research facility in October.

Roughly 90% of all the soybeans grown in the U.S. contain a Monsanto gene that helps the plant survive dousing by Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. Introduced in 1996, the Roundup Ready soybean seed allows farmers to chemically remove weeds from their fields without damaging crops.