New agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins says USDA is releasing payments from three conservation programs that were temporarily frozen in the early days of Trump’s presidency, but says others remain “under review” as the new administration reassesses priorities.
Speaking on Sunday evening at the Commodity Classic, the annual meeting of grain and oilseed growers and equipment manufacturers in Denver, Rollins said funding through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Security Program, and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program would be released.
But she did not reference funding made available through the Inflation Reduction Act or the Commodity Credit Corporation, under which scores of companies had secured the promise of funds to support everything from regenerative agriculture to agroforestry projects via the Climate Smart Commodities scheme.
“We’re still reviewing other programs to make sure that they are focused on making American agriculture the most competitive in the world,” said Rollins. “Gone are the days when the USDA will be advancing the Green New Deal [a plan proposed by Democratic lawmakers to decarbonize the US economy].”
Meanwhile, the $30 billion economic and disaster aid package approved by Congress in December will be called the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, said Rollins, who said USDA will beat the 90-day deadline for distribution of the first $10 billion in economic assistance, with payments to start flowing in the coming weeks. USDA is also working on rapid implementation of $20 billion in disaster assistance due to volatile weather, she added.
Charting ‘a new course for American agriculture’
Noting that the state of the ag economy is “perhaps the worst it’s been in 100 years,” with crop prices going down and farm input costs going up, Rollins promised to “chart a new course for American agriculture.”
As part of this, USDA officials will go “line by line through the budget to root out wasteful programs, especially ones that focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and far left climate agendas,” she added.
USDA has also “cut millions in media subscriptions such as to Politico and others that don’t necessarily align with our values,” added Rollins.
“My commitment to you is that we get a farm bill done by the end of this year.”
President ‘will not forget our farmers’
While Rollins has previously indicated that USDA might provide financial aid to US farmers damaged by a trade war, she did not mention Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on goods coming from Canada and Mexico, saying only that the President “will not forget our farmers when he’s negotiating with foreign leaders.
“He is the ultimate deal maker, and he is going to ensure that our farmers are being treated fairly by our trading partners. I know firsthand how important trade is to your success.”
MAHA vs MAGA and EPA’s ‘massive deregulation project’
While some commentators see a mismatch between HHS secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s calls for tighter regulations on pesticides and food additives and moves by the Trump administration to relax regulations and gut the agencies regulating them, Rollins said she planned to work closely with HHS on its Making America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.
“I am working with Secretary Bobby Kennedy as we speak on efforts to make America healthy again, but I am certain that we will do so in a way that does not compromise you and your farms and your farming practices.”
As for deregulation, she said, “We’re going to carefully review every regulation instituted over the last four years and remove all those that stifle your production.
“Rest assured that this administration will never rest until we get government off the back of all of our great innovators and entrepreneurs… Under the Biden administration, American ranchers and farmers face many harmful regulations, particularly from the EPA, which has severely limited access to critical crop protection tools that help increase yields, use fewer inputs, and implement conservation practices.
“I’ll be working with my good friend and one time policy partner, Lee Zeldin at the EPA to unleash prosperity in rural America through a massive deregulation project.”
Further reading:
USDA nominee promises financial aid to farmers to offset “devastating” impact of a trade war
Farmers sound alarm on anti-seed oil rhetoric and escalating trade tensions
