This week USDA announced the launch of its Seed Liaison Initiative to help growers, plant breeders, and others who work with seed navigate the complex US seed system. The initiative aims to help create a transparent and competitive seed market by providing a point of contact for seed growers and intellectual property administrators, antitrust regulators, licensing and labeling enforcers, and other federal partners. Among what’s included on the initiative’s new website are resources for plant breeders and seed growers, and a portal for filing a complaint involving mislabeled seed to the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) for investigation.
The newly established Seed Liaison Initiative in AMS is the result of USDA implementing recommendations published in the Promoting Fair Competition and Innovation in Seeds and Other Agricultural Inputs report that it published in March 2023. Both the report and related actions by the USDA are in response to the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy announced in July 2021, creating a whole-of-government approach to competition.
