Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins is marking President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office in Texas today with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr., who shook up some in the ag industry with a declaration last week that sugar is “poison,” will visit laboratories at Texas A&M University’s Norman E. Borlaug Building, named for the father of the Green Revolution. He and Rollins also will get a briefing at A&M’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture, and they will tour the AgriLife Phenotyping Greenhouse.
Later, Kennedy and Rollins will tour Sawyer Farms, which “focuses on producing grains using sustainable practices which conserve the soil while improving its productivity,” according to the operation’s website.
House Rs try to nail down SNAP cuts
Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are expected to meet today to talk about provisions they could include in a budget reconciliation bill. The committee is tasked with cutting $230 billion over 10 years.
The provisions in play include much of South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson’s plan, the America Works Act, to tighten SNAP work requirements, according to one lawmaker.
USDA ends case against SD ranchers
The Trump administration is dropping criminal charges that were filed against a South Dakota ranching couple in a land dispute with the Forest Service. Charles and Heather Maude will participate in a news conference on Wednesday.
“The Maudes are not criminals. They have worked their land since the early 1900’s and something that should have been a minor civil land dispute that was over and done with quickly turned into an overzealous criminal prosecution on a hardworking family that was close to losing their home, children, and livelihood. Not in this America, not under President Trump,” Rollins says in a statement.
Trump’s USDA trade undersecretary pick faces senators
The Senate Ag Committee will vote today on Stephen Vaden’s nomination to be USDA’s deputy secretary and Tyler Clarkson to be general counsel.
The Trump administration’s pick for USDA’s trade undersecretary, Luke Lindberg, also appears before the committee for his confirmation hearing. The America First Policy Institute fellow will face questions on ag opportunities in ongoing tariff negotiations and the scope of any assistance to U.S. growers, lawmakers tell Agri-Pulse.
Committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., said producers continue to believe Trump will use tariffs to help U.S. farm products compete in foreign markets. “There's a lot of talk about talking to other countries and things like that,” Boozman said. “I think everybody's anxious to find out where we're at, and what he sees as the path forward.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wants assurances that specialty crop producers impacted by retaliatory tariffs will receive assistance as part of any program stood up.
“They’ve traditionally not really been able to access much of that kind of funding,” Schiff said. “They weren't in the first Trump administration. So those are going to be some of my concerns.”
Mexico says it’s strengthening screwworm response
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government is bolstering its response to New World screwworm, just days after Rollins urged her counterpart to step up eradication efforts.
“There are many control systems that already existed in Mexico, but now we are strengthening them starting from the southern border,” Sheinbaum told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
Rollins wrote to Mexico’s agriculture minister, Julio Berdegué, on Saturday warning that if Mexico did not improve its policy response, the U.S. would reimpose trade restrictions.
The next day, Berdegué said in a post to X that he had responded to Rollins, but did not say whether his government would meet her policy demands.
“We collaborate, we cooperate, but we never submit,” Berdegué’s post reads, according to an informal translation.
Mexican officials did not respond to Agri-Pulse’s questions on Berdegué’s response.
USDA to lead Hong Kong trade mission
USDA will lead more than three dozen U.S. businesses on a trade mission to Hong Kong next month, including representatives from the grain, dairy, rice, soybean and wheat sectors.
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Participants will meet with buyers from both Hong Kong and the Philippines, and the mission coincides with a large food and hospitality trade show, USDA’s statement says.
Although Hong Kong exports were hit by recent U.S. tariff escalation on imports from China, China’s retaliatory tariffs do not hit Hong Kong-bound U.S. exports. Hong Kong is a separate customs territory and maintains zero tariffs.
“Hong Kong is a key gateway for U.S. agricultural exports, connecting our farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses with one of the most dynamic markets in Asia,” said the Foreign Agricultural Service’s Mark Slupek, who will lead the trade mission.
Biden USDA official concerned about cuts
A former USDA undersecretary told a group of agricultural journalists on Monday that he fears the agency has been “severely weakened as an institute to service agriculture” following staff cutbacks.
Robert Bonnie, who in the Biden administration served as undersecretary for farm production and conservation, told members of the North American Agricultural Journalists that he’s worried about “very senior people” leaving the department.
For instance, he pointed to the departure of Tim Griffiths, who led Natural Resources Conservation Service’s National Sage Grouse Initiative until Friday. He expressed concern about potential departures of senior officials working on wildfire response, which he worries could hamper federal efforts to fight fires this summer.
Take note: Bonnie also said he worries cuts to conservation resources have impacted a network of nonfederal agencies that help USDA fulfill conservation and technical assistance work.
“The pullback in resources on the conservation side has severely hampered the ability of those organizations to work in partnership with NRCS to get work done on the ground,” he said.
USAID-shuttered Soybean Innovation Lab receives $1M donation to keep operating
Work at the USAID-funded Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was halted in February. A $1.02M gift from an anonymous donor will keep the facility in operation for another year.
More than a dozen Feed the Future labs across the country have been shuttered after USAID rescinded funding for the projects. A release from the University of Illinois says the donation will give SIL director and U of I agricultural and consumer economics Professor Emeritus Pete Goldsmith time to seek stable funding for the long-term future.
Goldsmith says the lab will use the donation to restart efforts to bring soybeans to the Lower Shire Valley of southern Malawi to diversify the region’s economy and leverage recent World Bank irrigation investments.
Final word
“It’s kind of similar to the teenager, and as a parent they come to you and say, ‘I’m announcing my intention to clean my room.’ That’s about how meaningful last week’s announcement was.” — Brian Ronholm, director of food policy for Consumer Reports, on the Trump administration’s announcement to phase out the use of food dyes. Ronholm also made his remarks at the NAAJ annual meeting on Monday.
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