Attorney General Todd Blanche and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have signed an agreement that widens their departments' cooperation on competition in the markets for feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment, pesticides and other essential goods that farmers rely on. The memorandum of understanding, signed Oct. 5, was announced by the Justice Department on Tuesday.
The Agriculture Department announced the expanded partnership alongside a $180 million Seed Sovereignty Initiative, which will use the money over two years to sequence and characterize plant genetic resources, including the major crop collections held by its National Plant Germplasm System. That system holds more than 600,000 plant samples representing more than 16,000 species, kept in 22 seed bank facilities that give farmers, seed companies and researchers the material they use to develop new varieties.
Rollins said the program is designed to reduce the country's reliance on foreign competitors for critical agricultural resources. Department officials said the work will let researchers respond more quickly to emerging threats and support the development of new crop varieties, and that USDA will use advanced technology to find valuable traits and gaps in the nation's genetic holdings.
According to the Justice Department, the new memorandum amends and restates a working-level agreement that its Antitrust Division entered into in September 2025, and it reflects the high priority both agencies place on competition for agricultural inputs. The department said it is committed to vigorously investigating and bringing appropriate action to stop anticompetitive conduct that harms American farmers and families, and it described the deeper partnership as a way to protect farmers from unlawful conduct and to promote a more affordable and resilient food supply chain.
The American Seed Trade Association welcomed the gene bank investment. "Today's announcement by USDA is a long-awaited moment for the seed industry," said Andy LaVigne, the association's president and chief executive. The group has long pressed for investment in the system's seed banks and helped secure a 2018 farm bill provision directing USDA to carry out a national plan for assessing and using its germplasm and cultivar collections. It said a secure, accessible supply of publicly available plant material can lower barriers to innovation and widen the range of seed choices open to farmers.
The memorandum sets terms for how the two departments work together and does not itself bring a case; the Justice Department's announcement named no company or investigation and did not say which provisions differ from the 2025 version. The department asked anyone with information about anticompetitive conduct in agricultural industries to contact its Antitrust Division's Citizen Complaint Center, and complaints about livestock and poultry markets can also go to the joint Agricultural Markets Enforcement Partnership the two departments run.