The Biden administration is preparing a government-wide plan to encourage competition in markets across the economy, according to people familiar with the process, a move that could have broad implications for industries including technology, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture, according to a Bloomberg report.

The White House plans to issue an executive order as soon as next week that would require federal agencies to take steps to promote competition in the industries they oversee, according to the sources.

“The president made clear during his campaign that he is committed to increasing competition in the American economy, including by banning noncompete agreements for workers and protecting farmers from abusive practices, but there is no final decision on any actions at this time,” said White House spokeswoman Emilie Simons.

The move gives Biden a way to focus on the decade-plus consolidation of key consumer-facing industries in the U.S., including airlines and telecommunications. In discussing competition, the order also would let him weigh in on the growth of tech companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., whose market sway has stirred bipartisan concerns in Congress.

While there is much banter around tech companies, there has also been considerable consolidation in recent years within the crop input industries.

The order will echo an Obama administration order in 2016 that said government agencies beyond those responsible for antitrust enforcement had a role to play in protecting consumers, workers, and business from being harmed by instances of market power in the economy.

That order built off a report by the Council of Economic Advisers outlining concern about evidence indicating that industries across the U.S. economy suffer from rising consolidation and declining competition. The report recommended that other agencies and departments, such as those overseeing communications and transportation, use regulations to address the problem in addition to traditional antitrust enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department.

Since then, attention on the power of dominant companies has only grown, as economists and policy makers raise concern that rising concentration is ailing large swaths of the economy and contributing to problems including income inequality, stagnant wages, and low productivity growth.

An executive order by the Biden White House would add to a widespread push for stronger antitrust enforcement in Washington, where bipartisan majorities on the House Judiciary Committee last week advanced six antitrust bills, primarily aimed at the biggest tech companies. The proposals represent an effort to revamp antitrust laws and give competition enforcers more authority.

The hurdles faced by antitrust officials in challenging the conduct of dominant companies was thrust into the spotlight on June 28 when a judge dismissed two monopoly cases against Facebook Inc. that had been brought by the FTC and a coalition of states. The cases accused Facebook of engaging in a strategy of buying companies to eliminate competition and sought to force the divestitures of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Before President Joe Biden took office, antitrust experts urged the administration to look beyond the Justice Department and the FTC to protect competition, arguing that the two enforcers can’t do everything to ensure competitive markets.

“No single part of government can fully revitalize competition on its own,” a report by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth said.

That report recommended that Biden establish a White House Office of Competition Policy to promote new regulations and push a legislative agenda to revitalize antitrust enforcement. Although the president has not taken that step, he named Columbia Law School professor and antitrust expert Tim Wu as a competition adviser in March.

Biden followed Wu’s appointment with the nomination of Lina Khan to the FTC, where she took over as chair earlier this month.

U.S. corn growers planted 92.7 million acres of corn this year, according to USDA’s June 30 Acreage report, up from the March 31 Prospective Plantings estimate of 91.1 million acres. This year’s planted acreage figure was also up two percent, or 1.87 million acres, from last year, and reflects the highest planted acreage total since 2016.

The corn acreage increase was expected in the wake of higher corn prices and favorable planting weather, but fell below analyst expectations. A Bloomberg Survey before the report’s release yielded an average forecast of 93.8 million acres.

Compared with last year, planted acreage increased in the Cornbelt states of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio, but remained unchanged in Iowa and fell slightly in Nebraska. The largest year-over-year increase occurred in drought-stricken North Dakota, which jumped to more than 24 million acres of corn this year, compared with nearly 21 million in 2020.

Planted soybean acreage is estimated at 87.6 million acres, unchanged from the March Prospective Plantings projection, but up five percent from last year and reflecting the highest acreage since 2018. USDA’s soybean acreage projection fell short of the average Bloomberg Survey forecast of 89.1 million, however.

Corn and soybean futures saw significant gains after the report’s release, with corn jumping by the exchange limit to $5.885/bushel, up as much as 7.3 percent from earlier in the day. Soybeans reached $14.0125/bushel after the report’s release, gaining 6.8 percent for their biggest rise since 2009.

“This surprise reduction in corn planted area sets a price floor for corn and soybean prices into 3Q, and ensures the market remains in ration mode as we head into the main growing season amid parched soils and a market hungry for corn,” said Alexis Maxwell, Green Markets Research Director.

“Though corn prices rose significantly after the report, fertilizer prices have risen more and demand destruction remains a big risk in 4Q,” Maxwell added. “This fall, as U.S. farmers go to apply fertilizers, they’ll see shockingly higher affordability ratios. The potash-to-corn affordability ratio has risen 41 percent from this period last year, and even in spite of corn’s limit up move on Wednesday.”

All wheat planted area for 2021 is pegged at 46.7 million acres, up slightly from the March estimate of 46.4 million acres and up five percent from 2020, but still reflecting the fourth lowest all wheat planted area since records began in 1919. Of that total, winter wheat planted area is estimated at 33.7 million acres this year, with spring wheat at 11.6 million acres and durum at 1.48 million acres.

All cotton planted area for 2021 is estimated at 11.7 million acres, down from the March projection of 12.0 million acres and three percent lower than last year. This year’s rice crop is estimated at 2.66 million planted acres, down from 3.04 million acres last year.

USDA’s Natural Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) also released the quarterly Grain Stocks report on June 30, which showed dramatically lower stockpiles of corn and soybeans versus a year ago. Corn stocks totaled 4.11 billion bushels, down 18 percent from the same time last year. On-farm corn stocks were down 39 percent from a year ago, but off-farm stocks were up 11 percent.

Soybeans stored totaled 767 million bushels, down 44 percent from June 1, 2020. On-farm soybean stocks were down 65 percent from a year ago, while off-farm stocks were down 27 percent. All wheat stored totaled 844 million bushels, down 18 percent from a year ago. On-farm all wheat stocks were down 38 percent from last year, while off-farm stocks were down 12 percent.