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Feb. 24, 2025 by Holly Spangler, Editor, Prairie Farmer magazine As of this writing, our editors have observed that the federal government appears to be following some of the Project 2025 agenda. Project 2025 is the presidential transition project developed by a coalition of conservative organizations, whose stated purpose is to "deconstruct the administrative state." To be abundantly clear, we don't know yet that this is the Trump administration's playbook. No one has said that. Trump disavowed Project 2025 on the campaign trail, but many of his major executive orders have mirrored it. So again, we don't know whether Trump will instruct new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to follow Project 2025's agriculture goals. Still, if you haven't read the project's agricultural section, it's worth your time. You can download it here; scroll to Page 289 for the Department of Agriculture chapter. Here's a quick look at the agricultural goals outlined in Project 2025: 1. Adjust USDA mission statement. Remove climate and equity references added by the Biden administration, and narrow focus to agriculture, promoting reduced government intervention, dissemination of ag information and research, and removal of trade barriers. 2. Restrict Commodity Credit Corporation. Restrict use of CCC for discretionary funding. Ironically, in 2020, then-Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue used this discretionary fund to make $28 billion in Market Facilitation Payments to farmers and ranchers, following the last trade war. 3. Reform farm subsidies. Repeal Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs, repeal the federal sugar program, prohibit farmers from receiving ARC or PLC payments in the same year they get a crop insurance payout, reduce crop insurance premium subsidy, and increase farm bill transparency in Congress. 4. Pull SNAP from the farm bill. Separate the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the farm bill to require Congress to hold sound policy debates on agriculture and nutrition, and prevent logrolling. 5. Move nutrition to HHS. Health and Human Services would administer all nutrition programs, instead of USDA, including SNAP, WIC, Food and Nutrition Service, school lunches and more. 6. Reform SNAP and WIC. Reimplement work requirements, eliminate loopholes and change category eligibility. 7. Reform school meals. Change eligibility and interpretation for free school lunches and breakfast. Since 2020, if 40% of students in a district are eligible for free meals, all students receive free meals -- something many rural school districts qualify for. 8. Eliminate CRP. Stop paying farmers not to farm land through the Conservation Reserve Program. 9. Change conservation compliance. Divest more power from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to states and soil and water conservation districts to oversee erodible lands and wetlands. 10. Reduce checkoff programs. Reject new checkoff program requests, eliminate existing programs, make it easier for farmers to eliminate existing checkoffs and hold votes every five years to determine if a checkoff program continues. 11. Redirect trade promotion. End support for Market Access Programs that subsidize trade associations, industry and businesses. This is a lot, and there's still more. I'd recommend giving it a read for more details. Sure, it's a 900-page PDF, but the ag section is only about 20 pages. And remember, this is a playbook, not law -- at least not yet. To read the entire report click here. Tweet |
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