As the first products of plant biotechnology become commercialized, questions have been raised about the types of plants under development and the goals of the organizations using plant biotechnology. This second question is particularly important, because some chemical/pesticide companies have acquired several seed companies. These acquisitions have led some policy-makers and university researchers to assert that pesticide/chemical companies will dominate plant biotechnology research and not develop seeds that can substitute for chemicals. This paper examines these questions by using plant biotechnology field-test permit data to characterize the organizations undertaking plant biotechnology research and to describe and analyze their plant development strategies.