U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, center, at a farm near Prairie City, Iowa, Oct. 6, 2026 speaking about USDA seed sovereignty program alongside Iowa Reps. Zach Nunn, front left, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, right. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
PRAIRIE CITY – The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a program Tuesday to increase research and sequencing of the country’s seed collection and announced it was “strengthening” its agreement with the Justice Department to investigate competition in the seed industry.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins made the announcement Tuesday at a farm near Prairie City, following a roundtable discussion with Iowa farmers.
USDA’s Seed Sovereignty initiative will invest in the National Plant Germplasm System, to sequence the country’s existing seed stores in an effort to “unlock the tremendous potential of the plant genetic resources the United States holds and identify critical gaps,” according to a USDA release.
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Rollins said the U.S. has “significantly invested” in international seed collections, but has failed to invest in its own “robust” seed collection of more than 600,000 seeds from over 16,000 species.
She said the research will “protect” the genetic resources that underpin the food system “while also paving the way for new breakthroughs that are vital for our food security.”
Scott Hutchins, the USDA undersecretary for research, education and economics, said researchers will use the USDA funding and artificial intelligence to “quickly” sequence all of the seeds in the nation’s germplasm system. Sequencing the seeds, he said, will give the department a better understanding of its genetic resources.
“If we know what we have, we also know what we don’t have, and we know what kind of dependency we might have with seeds from outside the United States,” Hutchins said. “That’s why we refer to it as seed sovereignty.”
He estimated that currently about 10% of the U.S. seed collection has been sequenced.
Hutchins said once the germplasm, or the genetic material, is understood, researchers can then see what traits those seeds hold – like drought or pest resistance – that can be helpful to farmers.
He said USDA will also use the Genesis AI initiative from the U.S. Department of Energy to “quickly find those traits and put them to work for our farmers.”
“While we do have treaties around the world to share seeds, those treaties do not extend to the sequencing and the genome information,” Hutchins said. “We intend to make that United States intellectual property, make it available to United States farmers for the benefit of United States agriculture.”
Iowa Corn Growers Association President Steve Kuiper said seed technology is “at the very core of modern agriculture.”
“Investing in research helps ensure Iowa farmers remain sustainable and profitable, while ensuring they have access to a competitive market to purchase their seed genetics,” Kuiper said.
In August, USDA also announced it planned to fund several new research facilities, including the National Plant Germplasm System Centralized Distribution Center in Ames, toward which the USDA directed $12 million.
Rollins was joined by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, to announce an expanded memorandum of understanding between USDA the U.S. Department of Justice with a “new focus on seed markets.”
“The Department of Justice will be shining an even brighter light on seed pricing practices, on seed licensing, on seed relabeling and on barriers facing independent seed companies,” Rollins said. “So again, working very very hard to do everything we can to support our farmers and ranchers.”
Last year, the two departments announced they were working together to “protect competition in key agricultural markets such as feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment, and other essential goods.” Farmers, lawmakers and independent agribusiness operators have said consolidation in these industries is one of the elements driving up input prices for farmers.
The Federal Trade Commission confirmed in May it had launched an antitrust investigation of the fertilizer industry and ag leaders, including the USDA deputy secretary, have been soliciting information from farmers and local dealers to help build the case.
FTC recently reached a $35 million settlement with Corteva over the seed and pesticide company’s loyalty program which the suit alleged meant the company was not fairly competing with other brands and generics.
Woodward noted the previous work of the DOJ, including a settlement to keep egg companies from coordinating to inflate prices. Woodward said in addition to bringing down prices for farmers, “Americans deserve answers” to how prices in the industry have risen.
According to USDA data, the average price of crop seeds increased more than 270% between 1990 and 2020, at a rate “significantly faster” than the price that farmers received for their commodities. The USDA report shows that corn, soybeans and cotton seeds, which are typically genetically modified seeds, rose at an even faster rate, with an average increase of 463% in the 30-year time frame.
Rollins, citing the report, said “there’s got to be a reason for that.”
“It’s time to figure it out; and it’s time to do better for our farmers; and it’s time to look at the consolidation in the industry; it’s time to understand why we rely on China for a lot of our seeds,” Rollins said. “It’s time. And I’m honored to hopefully help lead that.”
Hutchins said the Seed Sovereignty initiative intends to make the information it gathers on the U.S. seed stores available to companies “on a licensing basis” and not an exclusive basis.
“It should open up more competition in that context, but the companies themselves have to be able to exist and be able to create an opportunity to put that germplasm into their portfolio,” Hutchins said.
Rollins said she was also announcing a $6 million grant to Iowa State University to expand its Energy Agriculture Innovation Lab. The funding is part of $125 million allocated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for research facilities at land grant universities. Rollins said the grant would ensure that “ISU will remain a leader in cutting edge research and technology.”
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Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
