Value-enhanced crops (VEC's) have been the focus of "second-generation" genetically modified (GM) crops. The market power granted by intellectual property rights (IPR) and the use of contractual arrangements in VEC gene and seed production have fostered a move toward tightly-aligned supply chain industries. This paper suggests and tests an analytical methodology for examining a number of issues in tightly-aligned supply chain industries: (1) the distributions of potential monopolistic and monopsonistic rents, (2) choices of licensing intellectual property versus in-house seed production and distribution (3) implications of alternative marketing strategies and elasticities of demand on the magnitudes of rents, and (4) determining impacts on different stages within the supply chain and on substitute commodities. The high-oil corn industry is used as a case study.