Seeds are the basic building blocks of the food system — and just six pesticide and biotech corporations control a majority of the world’s seeds.

If the Dow Chemical and DuPont merger is allowed to go through, we will see even greater corporate domination of global agricultural markets. This would have far-reaching implications for food and farming in Hawaii, on the mainland and beyond.

Dow and DuPont are two of the largest seed and chemical companies in the U.S., and if they merged, they would become a $130 billion behemoth. The surviving company would control 25 percent of all global commercial seed sales and 40 percent of all corn seed sales.

They test these products in Hawaii, and plan to continue sales in the Global South, exposing poor people and communities of color to an unfair burden of pesticides that end up in their air, water and soil.

For the past 30 years, the biotech industry has promised to feed the hungry, tackle drought and increase the bottom-line for farmers with their genetically engineered (GE) seeds and pesticide packages. But time and time again, these crops have failed to deliver on their promises.

Instead, we see that genetically engineered seeds— many developed on Hawaii’s lands — are a delivery device for pesticides, designed to drive up profits of the Big 6 at the expense of communities like mine in Malaysia.

Corporations developing and patenting GE seeds also manufacture pesticides designed to accompany them. Instead of heralding a new age of agriculture, GE seeds are keeping farmers worldwide stuck on a pesticide treadmill. Communities from Kauai to Iowa to Punjab are routinely exposed to health-harming chemicals.

The industrial food system is failing communities around the world, and the Dow-DuPont merger would result in more corporate control — and less democracy — in how food is grown. The merger would mean consolidated power, less redundancies and more money for lobbying Congress for policies that put the interests of a few ahead of many.

A Dow-DuPont merger, along with the Syngenta and Monsanto mergers under discussion, would also mean less choice for farmers, less choice for consumers, and put the global pesticide treadmill in even higher gear.

No doubt we will press leaders of Asian countries to block this bad deal. But Americans have a unique responsibility to address the issues of the merger of two American companies.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, began a formal hearing process to evaluate the state of the seed market. Farmers and good food advocates filled the room, pushing for fairness, and a dismantling of Big 6 market control. Years later, no public report was released and no action has been taken.

But it’s not too late. DOJ can make good on the outcome of those hearings. And other governments around the globe should join in solidarity by also working to block the merger.

History has long taught us that we shouldn’t put too much in the hands of a few. The stakes are incredibly high. We are talking about the health of our families and neighbors, the livelihoods of those who grow our food, and the crops that nourish us daily.