Demand the USDA take action to address the excessive power of a handful of pesticide mega-corporations!

In the past twenty years, the Western bumblebee population has declined by 93%. And they aren’t the only bee species suffering catastrophic declines. Neonic pesticides, which coat virtually all conventional corn and soy seeds, are a key driver of bee declines, killing them outright, interfering with navigation and reproduction, and making them more susceptible to pests and diseases.

These bee-killing pesticide coated seeds are used across the country, contaminating our water, soil, and plants that pollinators rely on -- and neonics have made agriculture 48 times more toxic to bees over the last 20 years. Because only four pesticide mega-corporations produce the majority of the world’s seeds and pesticides, non-organic farmers are left with no pesticide-free alternatives to Big Ag’s toxic, pre-poisoned seeds. But the USDA could protect bees by ensuring farmers have access to neonic-free, sustainable options.

Comments

Dear USDA,

Over the past three decades, seed and pesticide companies have consolidated to the point where only four companies (Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta-ChemChina and BASF) control the vast majority of seed and pesticide sales in the United States. Fertilizer companies have similarly consolidated and continue to do horizontally and vertically.

As a result, farmers are left with very few choices when buying seeds or pesticides. For instance, virtually all conventional corn and soy grown in the U.S. is pre-treated with neonicotinoids, which are predominantly manufactured by BASF, Syngenta, and Bayer.

Further, the introduction of RoundUp Ready® seeds began an era of selling seeds with other inputs, predominantly herbicides, in order to increase sales for these companies. Now, the final layer of this platform are new data tools that measure countless data points on a farm and make recommendations to farmers on how to farm, including which inputs to use, in what quantities, and where.

These tightly integrated platforms have locked farmers into using products from only a single platform, in many cases, and they give these few agrichemical companies unprecedented anticompetitive power in these markets.

These platforms also make it easier than ever to farm vast areas. Access to land is already the primary barrier to entry for farmers of color and other under-represented producers, such as new and beginning farmers. Integrated platforms that promote tremendous bundling of inputs will exacerbate existing economy of scale issues to a point where land is even more inaccessible, and we see more consolidation.

Corporate consolidation is impacting the entire food system. With fertilizers and other inputs, farmers have been robbed of profits thanks to corporations raising prices along with farmer profit; if a farmer is set to make more money, the corporations selling the inputs takes that profit instead. Communities are losing independent retailers and seeing more absentee farm ownership. Consumers are also facing skyrocketing food prices.

I urge the agency to take the following steps to combat consolidation in the seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer markets:

•	Increase farmer choice by regulating commercial rebates and the bundling of inputs so that farmers are not locked into using products only from one company.
•	Promote independent seed banks and regional seed producers and protect the needs of tribal and underserved communities regarding seeds. 
•	Support more funding and research from land grant universities and HBCUs for seeds and climate mitigation strategies that stay in the public domain, ensuring they do not get transferred to private companies to be patented. 
•	Work with the FTC to identify necessary regulations regarding farmer data, including ensuring seed and pesticide companies cannot leverage farmer data to increase market dominance. 
•	Support climate mitigation strategies that reduce, rather than increase, reliance on synthetic agrichemicals. 
•	Support the creation and implementation of Integrated Pest Management programs that reduce reliance on seed and pesticide platforms that have increased the market dominance of the largest companies.
•	Support the decentralization of fertilizer production and alternative fertility management programs, including ecologically regenerative and organic production systems that are not reliant on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Sincerely,

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