Opinion: Rural America deserves competence, not talking points

Last week, the America First Policy Institute launched its Farmers First Agenda.  The organization, founded in 2021 by now-Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, surprisingly, did not include farmers or rural America as a policy priority until the middle of this month, more than two months after Rollins took her oath of office.

Why now? Following an AFPI internal survey that averaged fewer than five people in 37 states, AFPI determined that farmers and rural America needed more representation in the nation’s capital.  

To anybody who has worked on rural or agriculture policy issues, this may come as a surprise since there are already many organizations representing the many different aspects of farming, ranching, and rural interests in Washington.  Among them, there are also many coalitions that advocate for common causes. For reference, Agri-Pulse includes more than 150 organizations “that work to shape agriculture policy” in its annual CEO report.  The list is impressive, although not exhaustive, particularly since rural policy and agriculture policy are not the same, although they do crossover.

So why does AFPI think we need yet another voice in Washington? Presumably because few, if any, of the organizations that have been representing farmers, ranchers, and rural interests (some for more than a hundred years) are willing to support the administration’s ham-fisted, haphazard approach to power.  

It’s not because these organizations don’t understand what their members and communities want, or how to effectively shape and advocate for policies that will help them.  It’s because the administration’s “fire, aim, ready” strategy thus far gives them, and the people they represent, nothing to cheer about.  

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While AFPI calls their latest work an “agenda,” it reads more like a list of talking points that echo those of the administration, similarly missing any explanation of how the current approach will accomplish any of their stated goals.

The administration’s blunders are numerous and it’s easy to see why vocal support from organizations typically friendly to Republican administrations is missing.  The USDA no longer represents their interests or values. For example:

• Rural America and farmers value competence. It’s remarkably easy to not accidentally fire employees who are essential to running your business—farmers and rural leaders have avoided missteps like this for centuries—yet this administration has done it multiple times in its first few months.  
• Farmers and rural leaders across the country want to feed members of their community and local schoolchildren with the food they grow, yet this administration has said that programs that provide local food, to schools and others, are no longer priorities of the USDA.  
• Farmers use contracts to manage risk and USDA has unilaterally increased the risk of farmers not being paid for work they’ve already completed by refusing to honor contracts they’ve signed.  The billionaire “efficiency” model, of not paying for work that has been completed and waiting to be sued, is not a viable option for the working class.
• Farmers and rural leaders know that multinational corporations are extracting hard earned money from them and their communities, while the administration makes it easier for them to do so.
• Farmers are being told to “have fun” while they are, once again, placed on the front lines of a trade war we’ve seen before.  We know how it ends—market share is permanently lost to countries that are willing to act like trading partners, instead of those who change course based on the social media winds of the hour.

As somebody who grew up in rural America, AFPI’s Agenda is insulting.  Rural America doesn’t need AFPI telling them about “the dignity of work” in order to be healthy and prosperous.  On top of full-time jobs, rural folks are volunteering as firefighters (a paid position in the city) and working together to create cooperative grocery stores when corporate stores leave town, having siphoned all the money they can get.  

I don’t personally know if rural America needs another voice in Washington, nor do I think that’s the problem right now.  Rural America needs competent leaders at USDA who will stand with them as they combat exploitative monopolies that are hollowing out rural communities and conscripting people (including farmers and ranchers) to work longer, while paying them less, and charging everybody more for the basic things we need to survive.  

It’s true for rural America, it’s true for farmers and ranchers, and it’s a shared fight alongside our urban and suburban friends.  I hope this administration figures it out too.