Trump’s New Ag Secretary Needs To Tackle These Six Issues

If you bow your head before a Thanksgiving meal this year, thank a farmer. Like the air we breathe, agriculture is so intertwined with our lives that we forget to be grateful to the people working in this life-giving industry.

Nothing appears on your plate without the complicated agriculture network, which includes farmers, veterinarians, welders to repair farm implements, and manufacturers who turn hogs into sausage, milk into cheese, and corn into Cheetos. The ag industry includes teachers training the next farmers; agronomists keeping the soil fertile; and truckers transporting livestock to meat processing plants, raw materials to food manufacturers, and finished food to grocery stores. From worldwide imports and exports to the local egg farmer, dinner is not happening without agriculture.

The global industry that brings you apple pie is governed by politics. The life-and-death consequences of national and international food security are managed by government policy that dictates where money is distributed and what industries get government contracts.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Texan Brooke Rollins as secretary to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In his previous administration, Rollins served as director of the Domestic Policy Council, director of the Office of American Innovation, and assistant to the president for strategic initiatives. She is the founder and current CEO of the America First Policy Institute, and she has a lifelong agriculture background.

If confirmed, Rollins will manage the USDA’s 29 agencies and offices, 100,000 employees, and a budget of over $200 billion. Here are some of the issues Rollins will navigate.

1. Settle the Delayed $1.5 Trillion Farm Bill  

The Farm Bill allows for funding in many spheres. It addresses the following: crop insurance that helps with financial risk from a bad growing season or poor market prices; broadband deployment in unserved rural areas; The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); and food banks for the needy. The Farm Bill funds the National Animal Health Laboratory Network and other animal disease outbreak response programs that protect the food supply.

The Farm Bill is typically reauthorized by Congress every five years, and it was last passed under Trump in 2018. But instead of reauthorizing it, Congress passed an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill with parts that expired on Sept. 30, 2024, and other parts that expired on Dec. 31, 2024.

“Among the most pressing issues in rural America is the need for a new, modernized farm bill,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement after Trump won the election. “The two-year delay is unacceptable.”

One sticking point in Congress is the level at which Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits funding would increase and who would be eligible for SNAP. The proposed Farm Bill aims to “repeal the 1996 policy disqualifying individuals convicted of a drug-related felony from receiving SNAP.”

2. Negotiate the Farm Labor Issue  

Immigration reform is a different conversation in agriculture. Many farms and food production plants rely on immigrant workers through the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Program. In rural areas, many workers are needed at once to harvest crops in peak season. But once the crop is in, the work is over, making it tough to find enough local workers willing to take on temporary work.

Employers must provide H-2A workers with housing and transportation to the work site, and they must pay the minimum migrant worker wage, which varies by state (from just over $14.50 in Mississippi to nearly $20.00 in California), although some employers pay more to attract workers.  Some crops, such as apples, tomatoes, mushrooms, and lettuce, are best when picked by hand. H-2A workers also work in meat packing plants and canneries. H-2A visa holders must return home after three years. Individuals may apply to return to the United States as H-2A workers after three months.

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee’s Agricultural Labor Working Group has been working on updating the H-2A program, and in March the group issued a report that included the following policy recommendations: establish a simple online H-2A application processing system; allow employers to stagger worker entry dates; allow employers to advertise jobs in an electronic registry (current law requires farmers seeking to fill H-2A job openings to use print advertisements in newspapers); allow smaller farms to pay less than the migrant worker minimum wage.

In a similar call for policy reform, the National Grange, a pro-agriculture organization founded in 1867, is advocating for H-2A flexibilities that will lead to a “stable, consistent, and legal labor force.”

3. Solve the Meat Inspector Shortage

The USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) currently has nearly 50 job openings for food inspectors across the country. There has been a shortage of such workers for years, as a 2012 USDA report shows. FSIS has added incentives to encourage interest in the jobs, offering a $5,000 hiring bonus for some positions and making the work part of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which can help pay off university debt.  

Inspectors travel to meat and poultry processing plants to ensure sanitation standards are met. FSIS considers this a “mission critical” position because of the inspector’s role in food safety.

The 2023-2026 FSIS Strategic Plan voices an intention to continue to find, hire, train, and retain qualified workers. 

4. Navigate Changing Dietary Guidelines

Farmers want to produce foods the market wants, so growers are interested in which foods the government recommends. It is an indicator of future contract needs for school lunches and prison meals.

Food advice has changed over the years, in part influenced by government guidelines. Last year the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the USDA appointed a team of 20 nutrition and public health workers to serve on the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and produce the new “Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030.”

The USDA first published U.S. dietary guidance in 1894. By the 1940s, the USDA was promoting seven basic food groups to eat every day: green and yellow vegetables; oranges, tomatoes, and grapefruit; potatoes and other vegetables and fruit; milk and milk products; meat, poultry, fish, or eggs; bread, flour, and cereals; and butter and fortified margarine. Since then, we have seen the four food groups (the “Basic Four”), the food pyramid, and today, MyPlate, which emphasizes portion sizes.

5. Balance Environmental Rules With Property Rights

Less usable farmland means less food produced. Sometimes the land is there, but policies prevent farmers from using it. The Clean Water Act regulates “navigable waters,” sometimes called “Waters Of The United States” (WOTUS). A body of water does not have to be big enough to navigate a boat. Until a 2023 Supreme Court Decision, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was regulating temporary water features that only appeared in rain. The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers called these waters a “significant nexus” because when wet, water could flow into other protected waters.

“Nearly any activity that occurs within a WOTUS requires a permit (unless the activity is exempt), which can take years to obtain and cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to the Farm Bureau. “A simple misjudgment by a farmer in determining whether a low spot is or isn’t WOTUS could trigger huge civil fines and even criminal punishment.”

Private landowners who bought a residential lot but were prevented from building a house on it because water pooled nearby when it rained challenged the significant nexus in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Sackett v. EPA decision forced the EPA to revise the rule. Though the EPA got rid of the significant nexus, farmers say the change did not go far enough. They want the EPA to address vague rules that could limit land use under threat of penalties and prosecution.

6. Manage Trade in a Tense Global Climate

Step into any grocery store and you will find international items like bananas, out-of-season produce, and specialty foods. Consumers depend on trade for variety in diet, and farmers depend on trade to provide other markets in which to sell their products.  

The United States saw agriculture exports drop 11 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, and Brazil surpassed the U.S. as the world’s top corn exporter. Exports were down in wheat, soybeans, beef, dairy, cotton, and poultry, but up slightly in pork, fresh fruit, and ethanol. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service predicts a $45.5 billion agriculture trade deficit in fiscal year 2025. It means the U.S. is importing more ag products than we are exporting.  

The war in Ukraine disrupts prices and the availability of products in countries accustomed to buying commodities from Russia or Ukraine, threatening food security, since Ukraine and Russia are both major exporters of important food products. Ukraine is known for exporting grains, but Russia recently attacked grain-hauling ships in the port of Odesa, compromising Ukraine’s ability to export at peacetime levels.

“The ongoing fighting in Ukraine could trigger a global food crisis, as 36 of the 55 countries already experiencing a food crisis depend on exports from Ukraine and Russia,” according to a 2023 report. “Before 2022, both countries produced about 30 percent of the world’s supply of wheat and barley, a fifth of corn, and more than half of sunflower oil. Roughly 22% of Ukraine’s farmland — including 28% of winter crops and 18% of summer crops — is not under Ukrainian official control.”

Beyond the Russia-Ukraine conflict, there is the United States’ unpredictable relationship with China. China does a lot of agricultural business with the United States in imports and exports. If tensions rise between these countries, it could threaten longtime trade habits and affect millions of people in both countries.

The six policies outlined above are just a few of the delicate issues Rollins will manage if confirmed to lead the USDA. From water flow on the farm to geopolitical tensions, these agricultural policies will affect you — and the food that ends up on your plate.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.