Target 2.5: Maintain genetic diversity of seeds and animals
By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Commercial seed supply is highly concentrated. USDA ERS reports that Corteva and Bayer alone provided more than half of US corn, soybean and cotton seed sales in 2018-20. It also reports that four firms, Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta and BASF, control the majority of seed and agricultural chemical sales. Breeding priorities and germplasm licensing at a handful of listed companies therefore shape cultivated diversity. On political influence, IATP documents the American Seed Trade Association and US trade agreements requiring partner countries to adopt UPOV 91, which restricts farmers' saving and exchange of seed. Owners have shown they can discipline Bayer, where 55.5 percent voted against the management board in 2019 over the Monsanto acquisition. Public gene banks and treaty rules on benefit sharing remain governmental. Owners therefore supply a necessary input and can lift a lobbying obstacle, while others must act too.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Two companies accounted for more than half of corn, soybean, and cotton seed sales in 2018-20, USDA Economic Research Service, 2023-10-02
- Battling for Farmers' Seed Systems: UPOV 91 and Trade Agreements, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2025-08-20
- Bayer Shareholders Vote Against Board over Monsanto Merger, Sustainable Pulse, 2019-04-27
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Filed the 2025 General Mills proposal seeking disclosure of the pesticide use reductions achieved through the company's regenerative agriculture program, and has run engagements with food companies on genetically modified ingredients.
28% of General Mills Shareholders Vote in Support of Pesticide Disclosure, As You Sow, 2025-10
Co-filed the 2025 General Mills pesticide disclosure proposal.
28% of General Mills Shareholders Vote in Support of Pesticide Disclosure, As You Sow, 2025-10
Voted against Bayer's management and supervisory boards at the 2019 annual meeting over the Monsanto acquisition.
Bayer's Chairman Faces No-Confidence Vote Over Monsanto Deal, Fortune, 2019-04
2 campaigns on record
Disclose the pesticide use reductions achieved through its regenerative agriculture program.
With Mercy Investment Services
Result: 28 percent in favor
28% of General Mills Shareholders Vote in Support of Pesticide Disclosure, As You Sow, 2025-10
Withhold discharge from the management and supervisory boards over the legal and financial risks of the Monsanto seed and agrochemical acquisition.
With Union Investment
Result: not stated in source; ISS and Glass Lewis both recommended voting against board discharge, and BlackRock and DWS were reported as planning to abstain or vote against
Bayer's Chairman Faces No-Confidence Vote Over Monsanto Deal, Fortune, 2019-04
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.