USDA-DOJ Sign an Antitrust Review Agreement

The USDA and the Justice departments now have a memorandum of understanding in place to look at issues connected to rising farm input costs and their impacts on producers. USDA, Ag Secretary, Brooke Rollins,

“USDA and the Department of Justice signed a memorandum of understanding that aligns a joint commitment by both of our agencies to protect American farmers and ranchers from the burdens imposed by high and volatile input costs, such as feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment and other essential goods, while ensuring competitive supply chains, lowering consumer prices and the resilience of US agriculture and the food supply.”

Secretary Rollins says that her agency will work with the Department of Justice antitrust division,

“To take a hard look and scrutinize competitive conditions in the agricultural Marketplace, including antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition. There will be more announcements on that to come, but that work begins today.”

Bloomberg News reports that the agriculture sector has drawn scrutiny over being highly concentrated. Over the past few years, seed, fertilizer and equipment producers had already been targeted by the Biden administration's 2021 initiative to strengthen competition, a push that was revoked by President Donald Trump last month. A 2023 study by USDA found that two companies supplied almost 72% of corn seeds cultivated by US farmers.