Agriculture

IATP comments to USDA on Department reorganization plan

The following comments were submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on August 28, 2025 in response to the Department's announced reorganization plan. Download a PDF of the full comments here.

Removing trade policy obstacles to agroecology and seed sovereignty

Central to the survival of small and mid-scale farmers is their right to save, use, exchange and sell their own seeds — that is, what agroecology advocates have come to recognize as their seed sovereignty.

Battling for Farmers' Seed Systems: UPOV 91 and Trade Agreements

This memo is an attempt to draw attention to the international policy-level challenges impacting Farmers’ Seed Systems broadly, but with a focus on communities in the Global South, and on how the U.S. and its seeds companies use free-trade agreements to undermine the policy space available for farmers to save, use, exchange, and sell farm-saved seeds.

Trade pressures threaten Kenya’s small-scale livestock producers

A new report commissioned by IATP and BIBA-Kenya analyzes Kenya's livestock sector and highlights increasing pressure from U.S. trade flows and Big Ag interests.

Kenya Livestock Sector: Value Chain Analysis, Trade Impacts & Recent Trends

This report provides a value chain analysis of Kenya’s livestock sector with a focus on beef, pork and poultry. It examines the impact of trade liberalization on Kenya’s domestic livestock and meat producers and within the East African Community (EAC) market.

The Republican budget chainsaws the food system

The Republican budget passed earlier this month took a chainsaw to several foundational pillars that prop up the U.S. food system: public spending for those facing hunger; under-paid immigrant workers; and a Farm Bill coalition of rural and urban policymakers.

At the starting line of EU budget negotiations

What EU budget negotiations mean for more sustainable and agroecological farming

Energy transition or false solution? How the EU’s plan to boost biomethane feeds the factory farm system

As the European Union (EU) looks for ways to cut its agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and manage its energy transition, biogas and with it biomethane has gained renewed traction. 

New ideas on addressing the concentration of corporate power in global food systems

Earlier this month, IATP and allies responded to a call for input by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food on Concentration of corporate power in global food systems and its implications for the realization of the right to food.

Joint Submission to the U.N. Special Rapporteur (Right to Food) on Corporate Concentration in global food systems

The following comments were submitted on June 12, 2025 in response to the Call for Input from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for the forthcoming thematic report to the UN General Assembly: Concentration of corporate power in global food systems and its implications for the realization of the right to food.