The USDA Fired Its Experts on Seed Industry Concentration. Then, It Proclaimed It Was Working on the Issue

Last month, when the Trump administration reached an agreement with Bayer to curb what officials lambasted as anticompetitive practices, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins hailed it as a win for farmers. But she cautioned the concentrated nature of the seed industry required continued antitrust vigilance.

“We must celebrate this great progress,” she said, “while acknowledging there’s much more work to be done!”

Rollins highlighted that the Bayer deal had grown out of cooperation between the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Justice. In late September, the departments announced a partnership focused on generating more competition in the seed industry.

What she did not mention, however, was the USDA had already eliminated — three weeks earlier — an initiative focused on just that.

Under the Biden-era initiative, the USDA hired a team of experts, with decades of experience between them, dedicated to increasing competition in the seed market. Among other duties, they fielded complaints from farmers, and one consulted with DOJ staff about the industry’s loyalty programs, which have been criticized for likely raising input costs for farmers and was at the heart of the Bayer deal.