The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary is holding a hearing today entitled, “Pressure Cooker: Competition Issues in the Seed and Fertilizer Industries.” The hearing will focus on concerns that consolidation in the U.S. seed and fertilizer industries contributes to higher input costs for farmers who are already dealing with low ag commodity prices. Critics, including Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, have long raised concerns that a handful of companies have a disproportionate amount of market power in the two industries. By 2017, just four companies controlled 80% of the U.S. corn seed market and 75% of the soybean seed market, a result of intellectual property expansion and industry mergers. The situation puts smaller U.S. farmers at a disadvantage, as they struggle to compete with larger agribusinesses on price and may not have access to the same credit or competitive offerings.