POLICY

House Passes 2026 Farm Bill: The Impact on U.S. Farmers

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:00:22 GMT

With a bipartisan vote of 224-200, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7567 , the bipartisan Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, on April 30. In addition to extensive updates to food and agriculture programs in a budget-neutral package, this vote marks the farthest a farm bill has made it in Congress since the most recent reauthorization was signed into law in 2018.

After a series of floor debates and last-minute amendments, the bill now moves to the Senate with some notable changes, including:

Year-round E15 sales removed from bill to be voted on in two weeks
Late amendment includes language to strengthen the domestic supply of fertilizer
Pesticide liability protections were stripped from the bill

My amendment passed! Pesticide liability protections have been stripped from the farm bill. 🔥⚔️🔥
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) April 30, 2026

“Working in Congress on behalf of our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities is an honor — even when the work requires debating the farm bill through the night,” says House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (PA-15). “I can think of no more important work than championing the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, and I am extremely pleased to see this bill pass out of the House of Representatives with a strong bipartisan vote.”

With a vote of 14 Democrats in favor, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 obtained the highest number of votes from the minority party on a House farm bill since 2008. Similarly, with over 96% of the GOP Conference voting in favor, this is the highest level of Republican support for a House farm bill in history, affirming the commitment of House Republicans to rural America.

“I especially want to thank all parties who were involved in the negotiations that allowed the farm bill to proceed to the floor and secure a future vote on year-round E15,” Thompson says. “Members of the Biofuels Caucus are tireless champions for rural America, and I look forward to joining them May 13 in advancing that important legislation.”

Swift Senate Action Needed

As the bill heads to the Senate for debate, Thompson reinforces that “farm country needs updated policy” that reflects current challenges in U.S. agriculture.

“The 2026 farm bill fills that gap,” Thompson says. “I look forward to seeing Chairman Boozman and the Senate make progress on this important legislation so we can get the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 sent to President Trump’s desk as soon as possible.”

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, along with all of the Democrats on the committee, says the committee looks forward to working with Senate Republicans on a bipartisan Farm Bill that can be successful on the Senate floor.

“We have been clear that the Farm Bill must address the needs of American farmers and families,” Klobuchar says. “With a five-year high in small farm bankruptcies, the Farm Bill must address rising input costs, provide new opportunities for domestic markets, and fight for a trade agenda that works for everyone. Senate Democrats are committed to ensuring all states are treated equally by delaying the new SNAP cost shifts and addressing the needs of farm country.”

Pesticide Amendment Passes

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s (R-Fla.) highly debated bill passed the House, stripping the farm bill of pesticide liability provisions. Before the amendment, the bill’s original language reaffirmed EPA as the sole agency capable of determining the information listed on a pesticide label. Critics, including Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) advocates, worried the language would shield pesticide manufacturers from liability claims.

D.C. consultant Callie Eideberg, with the Vogel Group, saysthe provision’s controversy means the bill will likely have an uncertain future moving forward.

“This means that pesticide companies, the chemical companies, are now still going to be dealing with the status quo, dealing with different requirements from different states,” Eideberg says.

In a post on X, Rep. Luna reaffirmed her disapproval of glyphosate and other pesticides.

“I do not support giving blanket immunity to corporations at the expense of American families. Pesticides are linked to a 30% increase in childhood cancer and over 170 studies corroborate the evidence,” Luna says.

In a press release following the bill’s approval in the lower chamber, the Modern Ag Alliance, a group backed by chemical company Bayer and over 100 agriculture companies wrote, “Today, the House turned its back on the farmers who feed, fuel and clothe this country. By gutting common-sense crop protection provisions from the farm bill, lawmakers caved to anti-science MAHA activists instead of standing with those who grow our food.”

Iowa farmer Mark Jackson says it is “unfortunate” Congress could not give farmers support for chemical weed control products. Jackson said farmers should be allowed the “freedom to farm” and said glyphosate’s scientific approval process, and the product’s 50-year registration history make it a credible product for farmers to use.

“I think we need to rally around science, follow the science,” he adds.

Eideberg says as the bill moves to the Senate, the MAHA movement could continue to influence debates. She believes the smaller body of the Senate will bring a different dynamic to the issue.

“I think we’re going to see those MAHA influencers feeling very emboldened by this win today and pushing even harder in the Senate to get more of what they’re looking for,” she says.

Farmers Praise Passage of Farm Bill
Ohio farmer and National Corn Growers Association President Jed Bower says USDA programs are important to the success of corn farmers and rural communities, particularly as growers face their fourth year of net losses and struggle with high input costs.

“We look forward to working with our allies in Congress over the next two weeks to secure passage of the E15 legislation,” Bower says. “Thanks to continued efforts on this issue from our biofuel champions, Speaker Johnson promised a vote on E15, and we refuse to allow a handful of multi-million and multi-billion-dollar energy companies to derail our efforts. Allowing the year-round sale of E15 would help our growers by expanding ethanol sales while also saving consumers money at the pump at a time when fuel prices are on the rise.”

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) is looking forward to the Senate taking up the farm bill without delay as farmers face unprecedented challenges.

“The House-passed 2026 Farm Bill supports the farm safety net, preserves existing conservation programs that include opportunities for dairy and livestock producers, bolsters trade promotion programs while protecting common food names, recognizes the important role of dairy in nutrition, and supports animal health programs,” said NMPF President & CEO Gregg Doud. “All of these are important priorities to dairy farmers and the broader industry, and we appreciate the leadership shown by House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson and other dairy champions to get this legislation through the House.”

U.S. pork producers are praising a very significant section that provides “much-needed relief from the misguided California Proposition 12 ” in addition to expanding the Animal Health Protection Act to include improving animal disease traceability and requiring thorough documentation on USDA’s ability to protect producers from significant economic losses due to a foreign animal disease outbreak.

Prop. 12 is creating uncertainty for pork producers and raising costs across the supply chain. Congress has a role to restore regulatory clarity.

It’s time for a fix. #FixProp12

🎥 Video credit: @HouseAgGOP pic.twitter.com/lkAmG1bmAw
— NPPC (@NPPC) April 30, 2026

“Today’s House farm bill passage is a testament to the power of rural America when we stand up for our farms and future generations with a unified voice,” said Rob Brenneman, National Pork Producers Council president and pork producer from Washington County, Iowa. “We wholeheartedly thank our champions—House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson, Rep. Ashley Hinson, and others—for not backing down from the fight for what is right for rural America. He and congressional supporters on both sides of the aisle heard our plea to help America’s pork producers.”

Eideburg points out that opposition to the farm bill pork provisions in the House are coming from several fronts.

“First, it’s coming from animal welfare groups that want to see those requirements in place,” she says. “We want to see minimum standard requirements for gestation rates. This other opposition is coming from companies and farmers who have already complied with Prop 12 and they don’t want that requirement removed because then they are going to be a) at a competitive disadvantage and b) out a ton of capital investment that they made on their to comply.”

The bill reflects many of wheat farmers’ top priorities from modernizing farm credit and safeguarding international food aid programs to enhancing export competitiveness, says National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) President Jamie Kres.

“These provisions will help ensure America’s wheat farmers can remain resilient and globally competitive,” Kres says.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane appreciates how Thompson and House leadership took the time to listen to real farmers and ranchers.

“Instead of caving to attacks on the livestock industry from shell activist groups that impersonate real producers, a bipartisan group of lawmakers advanced a bill that will provide certainty and important policy fixes for cattle country,” Lane says. “We look forward to engaging with the Senate to advance this farm bill to the president’s desk.”

Industry Says This Farm Bill is Needed Now

National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) CEO Ted McKinney says this legislation supports farmers, ranchers and consumers while providing economic growth opportunities for rural communities. H.R. 7567 prioritizes provisions that strengthen local food purchasing programs, enhance international market opportunities, reauthorize the three-legged stool for foreign animal disease prevention and preserve the viability of the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says the inclusion of the Healthy Dog Importation Act is just one of the many key veterinary provisions they applaud in the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026. This would improve importation standards to ensure a dog is healthy when imported into the U.S., which is especially important considering New World screwworm in Mexico continues to move closer to the U.S. border.

“The AVMA applauds the House for advancing a Farm Bill that will strengthen dog importation standards, fund and assess federal programs vital to veterinary medicine, and protect the country’s animal and public health,” says Dr. Michael Q. Bailey, AVMA president. “Enacting the Farm Bill is essential to advancing research into effective recruitment and retention strategies for veterinarians serving in rural and underserved communities. With the legislation now moving to the Senate for consideration, we look forward to working further with Congress and will continue to underscore the importance of including veterinary priorities in the final version of the Farm Bill.”

Now, Not Tomorrow

After voting in support of the bill, Congressman Rick W. Allen (GA-12) says, “Rural America needs a new Farm Bill now, not tomorrow. With today’s passage of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act, House Republicans have once again reaffirmed our commitment to American agriculture and delivered for hardworking growers and producers.”

Eideburg says funding for SNAP program will likely be a major fight in the Senate. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” shifted some costs within the program to state governments. She says the funding restructure and the combined potential vote to ban soda from SNAP could cause tension in the upper chamber.

She also says year-round E15 provisions, which were taken from the farm bill and punted for a vote in the House next week, could see as much opposition in the Senate.

“This really is a big hurdle to get E15, year-round E15 over the line.”

Farmers Could See Increased Farm Program Payments With Eligibility Changes

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 12:56:47 GMT

The One Big Beautiful Bill changed eligibility requirements for farm programs, including ARC and PLC, which could increase payments for farmers, depending on their business entity. USDA is clarifying those eligibility requirements for farmers and qualified pass-through business entities.

The bill raised payment limits to $155,000, but new rules will allow for additional farm program payments, according to Richard Fordyce, USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation.

“The bill does allow for members of business entities, such as partnerships, S-Corps, LLCs, joint ventures, general partnerships and the like, to qualify for their own unique payment limit if that were to be the case, say for an ARC or ARC county or PLC payment.

This will allow more farmer-owners to receive farm program payments, says Paul Neiffer, Farm CPA.

“LLCs or any entity taxed as a partnership or an S-corporation, those entities are going to be treated the same as a general partnership. If you had four equal owners, you get four payment limits instead of one payment limit,” he explains.

Navigating Business Structure Changes

As a result, Neiffer says some farms are changing their business structure.

“As long as you’re under the AGI limit, switching from a C-corp, which is still going to be stuck with one payment limit, to an S-Corp will get you multiple payment limits, if you have multiple owners. I’ve told people that if you’re a general partnership, you do not want to be switching over to an LLC yet until we have confirmation on the AGI limits,” he says.

Fordyce clarifies that FSA offices will be allowing entity changes after June 1, so farmers can be eligible for any benefits for the 2026 crop.

The definition of “actively engaged” in farming is also changing.

“They are going to still need to be actively engaged, but in some cases with these business entities, the payment limits to multiple members was limited. This changes that,” Fordyce says.

Base Acre Updates and Implementation Timeline

USDA is also updating 30 million base acres, which will be allocated based on 2019 to 2023 plantings, but only for new acres.

Neiffer says this could also enhance payments.

“Right now, we have about 245 million base acres. If we add in 30 million, that’s about a 12% increase, and remember, you’re paid based on base acres. You’re not paid based on planted acres.”

He reminds farmers the changes start with the 2026 crop with payments going out in the fall of 2027.

President Trump to Announce Actions to Help U.S. Farmers on Friday

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:56:45 GMT

President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration will announce actions to help U.S. farmers on Friday, as the White House prepares to host hundreds of farmers, ranchers and executives for an event highlighting the agricultural sector.

.@POTUS Trump LOVES America's farmers and our farmers LOVE him back!!

Our Administration is working around the clock to to deliver real relief and boost the farm economy and make necessary long term structural changes to our trading relationship, putting our farmers first.… pic.twitter.com/bVGgdzFfna
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) March 26, 2026

The move comes as the administration is expected to release long-awaited biofuel blending quotas under the Renewable Fuel Standard, a policy closely watched by corn growers, ethanol producers and oil refiners that dictates how much renewable fuel must be mixed into the nation’s gasoline and diesel supply.

Reuters reported that the Trump administration will release its 2026-27 biofuel blending volume obligations this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The rule will not differ materially from volumes proposed by the EPA prior to the onset of the Iran war , the sources said.

Trump, speaking to reporters at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, said U.S. farmers had been mistreated by some countries and touted the multibillion-dollar bailout farmers received to help offset losses related to tariffs .

The biofuel decision ‌comes ⁠at a fraught moment for both the oil and farm sectors, with the White House balancing pressure from refiners worried about gasoline prices and farmers counting on stronger biofuel demand to support crop markets.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Doina Chiacu and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Caitlin Webber)

ARA Supports EPA’s Emergency Fuel Waiver and Urges Permanent Year-Round E15.

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 23:40:31 GMT

The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) applauds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s emergency fuel waiver allowing nationwide summer sales of E15 and easing boutique fuel requirements to strengthen fuel supply, help stabilize prices at the pump, and support rural communities across the country.

“For agricultural retailers and the rural economies they serve, access to lower-cost domestically produced energy is critical,” ARA President & CEO Daren Coppock said. “The Administration’s temporary waiver to allow nationwide sale of E15 supports demand for domestically produced ethanol and helps ensure reliable fuel supply during peak driving season.”

While the Administration’s waiver offers near term relief, temporary actions fall short of providing the certainty rural businesses and farmers need to plan, invest, and grow.

ARA continues to strongly support permanent, year-round E15 nationwide to deliver long term clarity for retailers, consumers, and American farmers. A durable solution would strengthen the agricultural economy, increase market access for corn growers, and reduce uncertainty that disproportionately impacts rural fuel infrastructure.

ARA urges Congress to act and encourages stakeholders to participate in its grassroots advocacy opportunity here, calling for permanent year-round E15 availability

Western Water Infrastructure Gets $889M Federal Investment

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:11:53 GMT

The Department of the Interior has allocated $889 million for critical water infrastructure projects across the West. These projects will run through 2034 and will address sinking canals, expanding reservoir storage and replacing aging delivery systems.

The funding is part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and will support Bureau of Reclamation projects in California, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

California Projects

Projects in California will receive $540 million, targeting the Central Valley Project infrastructure:

Delta-Mendota Canal ($235 million) — Repairs to the upper canal, raising canal embankments, repairing check structures and a potential new concrete lining.
Friant-Kern Canal ($200 million) — Dedicated to fixing subsidence-related bottlenecks that currently restrict water delivery to the southern Central Valley.
San Luis Canal ($50 million) — Subsidence repairs to ensure delivery reliability.
Shasta Dam ($40 million) — Planning and pre-construction to raise the dam, aiming to add 634,000 acre-feet of new storage capacity.
Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority ($15 million) — Pumping plant upgrades to increase water flow rates.

Other States

This funding will also address several failure points in the Western water grid:

Idaho ($30 million) — New pump storage and conveyance for the Lewiston Orchards Irrigation District.
Utah ($100 million) — Replacing the 110-year-old open Highline Canal with an enclosed pipeline to improve safety and water delivery efficiency.
Wyoming ($100 million) — Long-term structural repairs to the Fort Laramie Tunnels to prevent a total system collapse.
North Dakota ($108 million) — Securing a reliable backup water source for eastern North Dakota by using the Missouri River (via the Garrison Diversion and the Eastern North Dakota Alternate Water Supply Project) to protect operations from local groundwater shortages during droughts.
South Dakota ($11 million) — Lining the Belle Fourche Siphon to stop leaks currently affecting 24,000 acres of farmland.

New rules allow the Bureau of Reclamation to prioritize irrigation deliveries over some environmental flow requirements. The bureau says that thanks to rain and snow and by relaxing certain restrictions, it was able to divert and store 200,000 acre-feet of winter storm runoff that previously would have been allowed to flow out to the ocean.

“These investments strengthen our nation’s water security, modernize aging infrastructure and support the farmers, communities and industries that depend on reliable water supplies,” says Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “By helping ensure strong agricultural production and efficient water delivery, this investment also supports more stable and affordable food prices for American families.”

Industry Reaction

Allison Febbo, general manager of Westlands Water District, says the funding toward the Shasta Dam enlargement is a much-needed investment in water supply.

“This critical funding will help put shovels in the ground and position California to better capture and store water during wet years for use during inevitable dry years,” she says. “This year’s mix of wet days followed by an unusual March heat wave only demonstrates how critical expanding storage capacity is in the state. It is a practical, forward-looking and essential strategy that protects necessary water supplies that sustain productive farmland and ensures that our family farmers can continue growing the food that feeds America.”

Febbo also acknowledged the funding to support improvements to the San Luis Canal and Delta-Mendota Canal.

“These facilities are essential components of the Central Valley Project, delivering water to farms and rural communities throughout the San Joaquin Valley,” she says. “Investments in conveyance infrastructure represent a practical step toward improving water supply reliability for the hardworking family farms who produce much of the nation’s food supply.”

Western Growers President and CEO Dave Puglia also expressed gratitude for this critically needed infrastructure funding.

“We are excited to see federal water infrastructure funds being deployed to address critical canal system deficiencies to ensure reliability for California farmers served by those systems,” he says. “Farmers in California’s Central Valley are grateful to President Donald J. Trump and Secretary Doug Burgum for this much-needed investment in economic sustainability.”

House Ag Committee Starts Farm Bill Mark Up

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:24:42 GMT

The push to get a five-year farm bill has been renewed in the House Ag Committee as Chairman G.T. Thompson released language and mark up began on Tuesday.

One Big Beautiful Bill Omits Farm Bill Titles

While some question why a new long term farm bill is needed, a cross section of the nation’s farm groups explain the bill did not cover all the titles normal included in a long-term farm bill.

“We had a lot of the provisions of the farm bill that were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill — the increase in reference prices, some changes and improvements to crop insurance, etc. But there’s still some really important aspects of the farm bill that need to be passed,” says Steve Censky, chief executive officer of the American Soybean Association.

Sam Kieffer, chief executive officer of the National Association of Wheat Growers, points out the One Big Beautiful Bill did not touch the conservation title or reauthorize programs like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Nor did the legislation deal with credit or expand farm loan limits.

“It is time to give our folks some certainty when it comes to conservation programs, when it comes to credit. The cost of doing business is drastically different than it was in 2018. And the 2018 Farm Bill was based off of data from three, four years prior. So, we want to make sure that we improve the credit section of of the farm bill, get that finished,” Kieffer says.

Farm Safety Net Needed

Kieffer adds a farm bill is also needed to provide certainty to farmers and offer a farm safety net in times of negative margins.

“There’s three years of market loss that our growers are struggling with at the moment, and they’re making hard decisions. Some of them are reducing acres, some of them are letting land go and there’s a price to be paid for that as well,” Kieffer says.

House Ag Committee Language Includes Prop 12 Ag Labeling Uniformity Act

Chairman Thompson’s farm bill language includes a Ag Labeling Uniformity Act, which covers pesticide registrations, according to Censky.

“Which means that the EPA is going to have preeminence when they make a health and safety determination of a pesticide, a crop protection product. You can’t have a state adopt different rules,” Censky says.

The House language also includes a national fix to California’s strict Prop 12 sow production standards and the possible patchwork of rules in other states.

However, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) would lose around $1 billion in budget authority over the next four fiscal years under the House Agriculture Committee’s GOP farm bill draft, according to calculations by the Congressional Budget Office. EQIP was essentially used as a funding source for other priorities in the legislation.

Include Food for Peace Program

Kieffer says NAWG also wants Congress to move the Food for Peace Program to USDA in the language of the Farm Bill.

“USDA knows how to deal with farm commodities. USDA is already in the business of engaging in food aid programs globally. They have the infrastructure. They have the personnel and they understand agriculture. So, the farm bill that is ready to be moved in the house here soon has a provision that would include that,” Kieffer adds.

Senate Preparing for Farm Bill Mark Up

While the Senate Agriculture Committee has not released farm bill language or scheduled a mark-up, chairman John Boozman told Agri-Pulse his committee will take up a farm bill of its own in the coming months. Timing will be dependent in part on how debate over a House version proceeds.

Will Congress Pass a Farm Bill?

Still there’s uncertainty about the appetite for passage of a farm bill in Congress according to Tim Lust, chief executive officer of National Sorghum Producers.

“A lot of these details honestly have been negotiated for a year or two, and it’s maybe little tweaks to them, but a lot of the main things haven’t really changed. It’s a matter of how do we get that across the finish line and find a way to get it signed into law?” he says.

Trump, Zeldin Announce 'Largest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History'

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 22:31:06 GMT

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the “single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history” alongside President Trump in the White House today.

EPA is eliminating both the 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding and all subsequent federal GHG emission standards for all vehicles and engines of model years 2012 to 2027 and beyond. The action also eliminates all off-cycle credits, including for the start-stop feature.

President Trump’s Day 1 Executive Order 14154 “Unleashing American Energy” tasked EPA with submitting recommendations on the legality and continuing applicability of this finding in the first 30 days of this term. On March 12, 2025, Zeldin announced that the agency was kicking off a formal reconsideration of the finding and resulting regulations. Zeldin formally announced the agency’s proposal to reconsider these actions on July 29, 2025.

“EPA’s historic move restores consumer choice, makes more affordable vehicles available for American families, and decreases the cost of living on all products by lowering the cost of trucks,” EPA said in a release .

Former President Barack Obama commented on X that because of the endangerment finding: “we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.”

Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules. Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 12, 2026

Saving Taxpayer Dollars
The administration says the final rule will save American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion in regulations, by removing the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify and comply with federal GHG emission standards for motor vehicles, and repeals associated compliance programs, credit provisions, and reporting obligations that exist solely to support the vehicle GHG regulatory regime.

“Lee is also working on cleaning up the horrible situation with regard to farm equipment,” President Trump said. “You could use John Deere as an example and other companies where tractors are unbelievably expensive and don’t work as well because of all of the environmental nonsense that was put on them. But the people are going to be a beneficiary because the equipment is going to be a lot less expensive and most importantly it’s going to work much better.”

This major deregulatory process included ‘substantial public input and robust analysis’ of the law following the Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and West Virginia v. EPA. The agency held an extended 52-day public comment period, which included four days of virtual public hearings where more than 600 individuals testified. EPA received about 572,000 public comments on the proposed rule and made substantial updates to the final rule in response to comments.

“The Endangerment Finding has been the source of 16 years of consumer choice restrictions and trillions of dollars in hidden costs for Americans,” Zeldin said in a release. “Referred to by some as the ‘Holy Grail’ of the ‘climate change religion,’ the Endangerment Finding is now eliminated. The Trump EPA is strictly following the letter of the law, returning commonsense to policy, delivering consumer choice to Americans and advancing the American Dream.”

Affordable vehicle ownership is essential to the American Dream and a primary driver of economic mobility out of poverty in the U.S., the Agency explained. This action will result in average cost savings of over $2,400 per vehicle.

“As EPA Administrator, I am proud to deliver the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history on behalf of American taxpayers and consumers,” Zeldin said. “As an added bonus, the off-cycle credit for the almost universally despised start-stop feature on vehicles has been removed.”

What Does This Mean for the Future?
Climate scientists say the overturning of the endangerment finding undermines decades of scientific progress and damages the credibility of U.S. institutions tasked with protecting the environment, the Associated Press reports. Scientists point out that rising global temperatures — the hottest years on record have all occurred since 2009 — cause more extreme weather that endangers people and causes billions of dollars in damage from more frequent and severe heat waves, wildfires, droughts and catastrophic flooding from more-intense storms.

The EPA action repeals all GHG emissions standards for cars and trucks, but experts believe it could trigger a broader undoing of climate regulations for stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, AP reports.

David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told AP that this could prevent future administrations from proposing rules to address global warming because they would have to restart the scientific and legal process to establish a new endangerment finding, which could take years and face legal challenges.

Preserving the Future: How Tennessee is Protecting Farmland While Driving Development

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:06:29 GMT

How is Tennessee, one of the fastest-growing states in the country, balancing economic development while still protecting farmland? Gov. Bill Lee says it’s one of the state’s greatest challenges, but he believes there is a way to do both.

Last year, Lee signed the Tennessee Farmland Preservation Act into law, tasking the Tennessee Department of Agriculture with developing a grant program to incentivize farmland owners to voluntarily enroll their land in a permanent conservation easement.

“We lose 9 acres an hour to development,” Lee said at the 2026 Top Producer Summit . “We recognize that agriculture is our No. 1 driver of our economy, so we have to preserve farmland. This act will incentivize farm property, and agriculture property in particular, to be put in land trusts so it can never be developed. This effort has been widely accepted by farmers and is beginning to take effect.”

Where is the Push for Economic Development in Tennessee?

Although economic development is taking place in many different forms, the state of Tennessee is seeing a big push for data centers. For some farmers, this could be the revenue generator they’ve been waiting on, but for others, it’s a contentious issue.

“If we are going to have a data center, it has to work for all of us,” Lee says. “Most important is that the impact on the grid for power is one that our state can effectively manage.”

He believes the data centers and the companies behind them should be partners with the state and with regulatory bodies.

“They should come in and say, ‘If we’re going to come here, this is what we will deliver to the state,’” Lee says. “Besides just the investment in dollars and what they will take from the grid, how will they deliver to the state?”

AI, a major data center and supercomputing facility in Memphis, is an example of a good partnership, he says.

“They are producing their own power and contributing to the grid. It’s a great partnership and model for things that we should be looking for in the future,” Lee adds.

How is Tennessee Helping Farmers?

Tennessee crop farmers are feeling pain right now like their peers across the country.

“It’s a tough environment for crop farmers,” Lee says. “We’ve seen the staggering losses some of our producers have experienced. But they’re very resilient people. They know that a few years ago, crop prices were good. Right now, they’re really bad. A lot of patience is required in farming, and they know that.”

Stability and predictability are nearly impossible to have in agriculture, he says. But he’s working to help provide stability and predictability from a federal standpoint through ag policy efforts.

“I think that’s what farmers look for more than anything,” Lee says. “They don’t want a rescue or an immediate solution to the problem they have. I think farmers want some indication of what stability looks like and what predictability looks like and what they can expect in the future.”

From a livestock standpoint, Tennessee has been investing heavily in the development of more local processing options.

“We do believe that locally sourced products are helpful to our own ag community,” he says. “To the degree that we can facilitate that in this state, we ought to do it. We’ve broadly expanded our ability to process beef in this state. We’re not nearly where we need to be, but we’re headed in the right direction.”

Creating a Pipeline for Agriculture

Lee is passionate about thinking about the future and creating pathways for skilled trades, especially in the agriculture industry. His experience running a company in the skilled trades business — plumbers, pipefitters, electricians and welders — has helped him see the need firsthand.

“One of the most important things we can do is recognize that kids’ giftings are really different,” Lee says.

Lee’s passion to better meet the demand for skilled labor came to fruition through the Governor’s Investment in Vocational Education (GIVE) Act.

“It created, initially, a $1-million program in high schools for vocational, technical and agricultural education programs,” he says. “It led to $500 million in middle school career and technical education programs, and ultimately $1 billion in our colleges of technology that deliver ag education, technical education and vocational education. We have removed the waitlist for our colleges of technology. We’re delivering 10,000 more workers a year who are skilled tradesmen.”

He believes it’s one of the reasons Tennessee has so many global companies making the decision to come to the state.

“We have a lot of activity here economically because the state with the workers is going to win every time,” Lee says. “We started seven years ago by creating a workforce that was much more diverse than what it had been previously, and that includes agricultural education.”

As a cattle producer and proud Tennessean, Lee says he’s most proud of how he’s helped support the state’s future in agriculture by investing in youth and the technologies that will be the future.

“It will be fun for me to look back years from now and say, ‘I’m really glad we did that. Ag was No. 1 in Tennessee when I was there, and ag is still No. 1 in Tennessee now that I’ve been gone,’” he says. “That’s what I hope for.”

Why Specialty Crop Economics Has Become an Endurance Game

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:08:02 GMT

Editor’s Note: This is the first story in a series that will explore the shifting economic landscape of the specialty crop industry.

Washington State Tree Fruit Association President Jon DeVaney was recently in Olympia, Wash., for Tree Fruit Day, which is a time for growers to discuss the issues impacting the industry with state officials. While those in attendance discussed the dire situation growers find themselves in, he says, a major challenge to having these conversations with elected officials has been how the economics of modern specialty crop farming have taken a turn for the worse.

“Some elected officials think you’re like those carpet stores in big cities that have been going out of business for 30 years, but they’re still there,” DeVaney says. “There is a little bit of that boy who cried wolf danger, from the perspective of talking to some of those folks.”

But much of the conversation stems from the data from the most recent census of ag in which the state of Washington lost more than 3,700 farms from 2017 to 2022, he says.

“Part of it is making sure that they have the stats to see that, yes indeed, this is a particularly rough time throughout the ag economy, especially for specialty crops, and that we’re losing farms,” DeVaney says. “A lot of my growers say, ‘Well, it certainly hasn’t gotten better since 2022, and it has gotten a lot worse.’ So, the aggregate statistics may not be updated, but we know that that trend line, unfortunately, is still continuing.”

Federal Funding Gap

And the sentiment DeVaney shared from his growers seems to be a pulse running through the specialty crop industry. The American Farm Bureau Federation’s figures show $3.6 billion in economic losses for almonds, $1.4 billion for apples, $763 million for lettuce and $717 million for potatoes in 2025. Many specialty crop leaders have pushed for economic support from the federal government .

The Specialty Crops Farm Bill Alliance says specialty crops contribute more than $75 billion annually in U.S. agricultural cash receipts and make up more than one-third of all U.S. crop sales. Yet, under the current USDA Farmer Bridge Assistance program, only $1 billion has been reserved for specialty crops and other commodities while $11 billion has been set aside for row crops.

So, where does that leave the economics of specialty crop farming in 2026? David Magaña, Rabobank senior analyst for horticulture, says a common theme might be unpredictability.

“There have been a lot of moving pieces, but overall, if we want just to characterize the current economic outlook for specialty crops, for growers in ‘26 the climate remains challenging, and tight margins continue to be one of the biggest challenges as the costs remain high, while demand is holding steady,” he says.

Labor and Price Squeeze

And for those in the specialty crop industry, it will likely come as no surprise that labor is the highest cost in specialty crops “by a country mile,” says Michael Swanson, Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute chief agricultural economist. Swanson says this labor cost extends far beyond the field but even to the cashier at the supermarket.

“The producer can’t change the economy’s wage inflation, but they can work to get the best labor force for their spending,” he says. “This will make the human resource manager a key player in 2026.”

Magaña says crop performance also plays a hand in the economic picture of 2026 with tree nuts, including almonds, pistachios and walnuts, performing better thanks to a better balance with supply and demand. He says this is likely due to the crops’ less labor-intensive production.

While tree nuts faced some challenging seasons from 2021 to 2023, they began to improve in 2024 and 2025.

“Prices for almonds, for example, should be profitable for most growers depending on the cost structure that they have,” he says. “The vegetables and the fruits that are more labor-intensive are facing more cost pressure compared to others.”

Magaña says what’s interesting is that growers often get excited about lower yields because it could mean more returns. But, he says, revenue equals price and quality. With the current walnut crop, it doesn’t always translate to higher prices, which further compresses margins.

The Consumer Paradox

“When we take a look at all this revenue compared to the cost, you need to be looking also, obviously, [at] how inflation is moving, both on your cost side and on your final price side. … To the point of the consumer, we’re seeing inflation has been stabilizing with the Consumer Price Index, but that doesn’t mean that prices are declining. They’re just increasing at a lower rate,” Magaña explains.

He says fresh produce prices have stabilized when compared to other food categories, which is a good thing for consumers but perhaps not so much for growers.

“The fresh produce aisle has become a healthy alternative, and also from a budget perspective,” he says. “So, that’s good news for the consumer, but for the grower, just stabilizing or flat prices and increasing costs, that’s just more pressure on markets.”

Swanson says that while retailers look to price, it’s also important to secure consistency and reliability in fresh produce contracts.

“It does not do them any good to get a good price on nonexistent or below-average quality product,” he says. “A buyer will always prioritize a supplier who does not let them down.”

Swanson says also of note in 2026 will be the impact of GLP-1 drugs on consumers’ buying habits.

“At the moment, they are trying to add protein to their diet to make up for the lower number of calories they are consuming,” Swanson says. “This pressures the fruits and vegetable categories as they make these trade-offs.”

Global Competition and Currency

Swanson says imports will be another economic challenge in 2026, with imports continuing to put a ceiling on domestic prices for specialty crop commodities that go head-to-head against them.

“U.S. producers certainly know that they have to match or beat import prices,” he says. “That is a tall order with higher land costs, labor costs and stricter environmental regulations, but the U.S. producer also has better local logistics, financing and productivity to compete in this market.”

Magaña, though, says that as the dollar weakens, it helps U.S. growers in the export market. He says the dollar depreciated almost 10% in 2025.

“That has improved the competitiveness of U.S. exports in international markets, and at the same time, when you look at that, that serves in practice in the same way as a tariff does for imports,” he says. “All exporters of fresh produce from Latin America, exporting to the U.S., when the dollar is weakening, they lose competitiveness.”

On the market, Magaña says the weakening dollar has had beneficial impacts. Western Europe has begun to import more California almonds and walnuts, which has also helped improve prices.

Wholesale Disconnect

DeVaney says a lot of his conversations in the Washington statehouse stemmed from prices, showing the upward trend line of retail pricing and the downward trend of wholesale fruit prices. He says it was difficult for those officials to understand.

“We had to explain to them that, yes, you’re hearing consumers say that prices are too high, but we’re not seeing any of that,” he says. “And quite the opposite, our growers are seeing less income and are trying to figure out how to survive in that environment. ... We don’t really have the ability to affect directly what we get from retailers.”

Tree fruit growers also raised the issue that they put up-front costs and investments into a crop for which they might not get paid until eight to 14 months later.

“It’s still the growers’ fruit as it goes into storage, and it’s only when it comes out of long-term storage and is packed and sold that they eventually get the net proceeds,” DeVaney says. “And so, that’s the other decision-making challenge, because the grower doesn’t know what the price will be at the time they’re selling it.”

For many tree fruit growers, certain expenses — such as labor costs — are determined by government policy. When asked to identify the most burdensome piece of legislation, policy or economic factor, DeVaney says it’s hard to do. He likens the current state of economics and policy to being attacked by a swarm of bees.

“There’s so many things coming at you that it’s overwhelming, and potentially fatal,” he says. “But you say, ‘Which bee is the worst in that environment?’ Well, they’re all bad, and they’re all coming at me at once. So, it’s the swarm. It’s not the individual bee.”

Capital Strategy and Survival

In terms of inputs, Swanson says this year growers will look to competitive bids on inputs and technology due to the added constraints.

“The entire crop production sector is asking for value with their compressed margins,” he says. “The old saying ‘you don’t get if you don’t ask’ will ring especially true in 2026.”

Magaña also says growers will likely delay investments and upgrades with a challenging financial picture. This includes orchard development, irrigation upgrades or even automation or mechanization. However, the potential for lower interest rates this year before an expected climb in 2027 and 2028 might mean it’s a good time for growers to secure financing and lock in rates.

The biggest risk in a high-volatility market is illiquidity, Swanson says. The key will be for growers to control growth or financing to avoid being asset-rich but cash-poor.

“Debt is not the problem, but the dosage is the problem,” he says. “The old saying ‘the dosage makes the poison’ is true for debt as well. Oftentimes, illiquidity and impatience are two sides of the same coin. Companies should be growing, but making sure it’s a controlled growth is the key.”

Endurance Game

DeVaney says another challenge facing growers is the notion of an appropriate supply, which fluctuates based on current market conditions.

“We do not calibrate supply and demand that finally, especially in fresh produce,” he says. “Because if there’s an abundance of table grapes one year, then that sort of puts downward pressure on all the competing fresh fruits that people might grab for lunch. It’s not just our own crops, it’s the aggregated produce sector, in a lot of ways.”

DeVaney says it’s not so easy to simply make a quick reduction in production for permanent crops, especially if growers are unsure that what they’re seeing is a short-term blip or a larger trend.

“Once you’ve already made that investment, the bias is toward sticking with it until you’re absolutely certain it’s not a good long-term prospect,” he says. “And some of those decisions have been drawn out as well, because the grower doesn’t want to walk away from that investment. And if they have revenue insurance, they have sort of a cushion to keep them hanging on longer to decide: Is that the decision they have to make or not?”

When asked to give a snapshot of his growers’ outlook, DeVaney says there’s a lot of frustration, as growers want to be the masters of their own fate. While agriculture has always had inherent risks, it seems even riskier now.

“It doesn’t feel like there’s a single action they can take to determine the outcome with this variety of global market forces and public policy issues at the state and federal level that are influencing their costs and their returns, and so their profitability feels outside of their control — that when they make good farming decisions that affects their potential, but it doesn’t determine their success or not, which is a frustrating place to be,” he says.

While growers might see choices that need to be made to recalibrate with current market and demands, it’s difficult for growers to be the first or second one to make that decision. It’s easy for the industry to say production needs to decrease, but it’s in the execution that becomes more of a challenge.

“It’s like people in a lifeboat together, with a limited amount of food, who want to jump overboard and not save the others,” he says. “That’s a terrible request to make of anyone, and so everyone is dealing with the starvation rations, looking at each other: ‘Will I outlast you and be able to then survive going forward?’ It feels like an endurance game with your industry peers to see who will come out the other side. And that’s a terrible place to be. People know maybe what needs to happen, but it can’t be decided on. And so, you just buckle down and see if you can survive through the point at which the market forces that correction upon us.”

Swanson says since labor will be the No. 1 cost driver, it will also need to be the specialty crop industry’s No. 1 focus.

“Employers cannot hire at below-average wages without getting below-average productivity,” he says. “However, they can hire at average wage rates and get above-average labor productivity.”

Swanson says there will be opportunities for specialty crop growers to share growth and cost control.

“Converting new customers allows them to outgrow conventional crop performance,” he says. “Their challenge is seeking a higher price to match their premium product offerings. If consumers are looking to save money on food spending, it will be harder to convince them to switch to the premium category.”

Swanson also says overproduction pressuring down prices is the biggest risk to crop profitability in 2026, which could come in the form of aggressive plantings or excellent weather.

“Let’s hope that producers stay in their lane plantingwise and the weather is average,” he says. “The flip side is underplanting or a weather event reducing supply. Let’s not hope for that either. It’s not bad when someone else gets hit by bad weather, but it might be you.”

What President Trump's Support Means for E15 and Corn Farmers

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:40:29 GMT

While speaking in Clive, Iowa, on Tuesday , the president said the passage of E15 will happen.

“I did. I promised E15 year-round if I got elected,” he said. “I want to let you know we’ll start right now.”

Trump said he is trusting House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune to broker a deal in Congress.

“We’ve got it for farmers, consumers and refiners, including small and midsize refiners. In other words, to get E15 approved, and they’re working on it, they’re very close to getting it done. I just wanted to let you know that,” he added.

President Would Sign E15 Bill Immediately

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a press release Tuesday evening that “yet again President Trump is honoring his commitment to America’s farmers and energy producers today in Iowa by announcing his support for the nationwide year-round sale of E15. As Congress continues to work through the details, the president has been clear — get a bill that allows nationwide E15 to his desk, and he will sign it to unleash American homegrown row crops for biofuels use like never before.”

Iowa Biofuels Groups Say President’s Support is Critical

Iowa biofuels groups, including the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA), took out ads and wrote President Trump a letter prior to his visit to urge his support for E15. IRFA executive director Monte Shaw says the president directing Congress to get E15 done could be the key to finally getting it passed.

“He said he would sign it without delay. We think that was key. There are branches of government, you know the president is not Congress and Congress is not the president. But when he calls up the congressional leaders and says, ‘Hey, I want to get something done’, it’s usually gotten done and got to his desk,” Shaw says.

Legislative Path for E15

Shaw says the legislative path for E15 could be a delayed spending bill, or even a stand-alone bill, since the newly formed E15 council has been given a deadline of Feb. 15 to bring back a deal, with the hope of passage by Feb. 28.

“They did a rule that created the E15 council to keep working on it. This was before President Trump weighed in, and it gave them a date certain for a vote,” Shaw says.

Even if approved, Shaw admits the market impact won’t be felt overnight. But in five to seven years, E15 could mean another 2.4 billion bushels of corn usage annually, and the impact on corn prices could be substantial.

“Two billion bushels is not a small number, but I think people need to understand it won’t happen overnight. Even as penetration starts to grow, you start to grind a lot of corn very quickly,” he adds.

Iowa Farmers Speak To Trump

Kevin Ross, past National Corn Growers Association president, spoke directly with President Trump about E15 at the Machine Shed restaurant. He felt the president was listening.

“He’s said E15 more times in that setting than he has since probably back at the rally down at the [Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy] ethanol plant. I think he’s definitely focused on getting this across the finish line, doing what he can do and that’s really good to see,” Ross says.

He is excited about the possibility of E15 passage and what it could eventually mean for increased demand.

“I would assume the market’s going to take things positively, which we desperately need,” Ross says.

The Politics of the Plate: How Voter Sentiment is Reshaping the Ag Landscape

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:22:44 GMT

The road to the 2026 midterms runs directly through the dairy aisle. At the International Dairy Foods Association Dairy Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., Morning Consult’s lead U.S. politics analyst, Eli Yokley, delivered a high stakes briefing on the cultural forces currently driving the American voter. From the surprising bipartisan popularity of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement to a softening public stance on agricultural labor, Yokley’s data outlines how the dairy industry can leverage its position at the intersection of nutrition and necessity to navigate an increasingly complex political landscape.

The “MAHA” Momentum and the Milk Moment

Yokley began with a surprising revelation: While voters historically distrust the Republican party on general healthcare policy, the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda is a notable exception.

“Voters just don’t trust Republicans on healthcare in the traditional sense,” Yokley notes. “But the MAHA agenda, specifically as it relates to food, is remarkably popular. It’s working on bipartisan territory.”

According to Morning Consult data, the favorability of the MAHA agenda remained steady throughout 2025. Voters associate the movement with improving food access and reducing harmful additives rather than vaccine skepticism. This “big moment for milk” is rooted in a return to natural, whole foods. Interestingly, Yokley points out a significant gender divide. Men across the political spectrum view whole milk as “generally good for you,” women, who still perform the majority of grocery shopping, are slightly more skeptical. However, a quarter of all grocery shoppers expressed a willingness to pay more for “natural” or “whole” products, a trend driven by high-earning suburban parents who will be the ultimate deciders of the 2026 midterms.

The Inflation Disconnect: Groceries as a Political Weapon

The most significant headwind for the current administration is the economy, specifically the “grocery store” voter. Yokley argues the administration’s focus on tariffs is increasingly out of sync with voter concerns.

“Voters perceive big price increases in groceries more than any other category,” Yokley says. “Groceries are the biggest driver of voter concern this year. It activates people across all income levels.”

For the dairy industry, there is a silver lining: Dairy products are still perceived as relatively affordable compared to bread, fruits and vegetables. And while, prices of fruits and vegetables have actually remained remarkably stable , dairy’s perceived “affordability halo” gives the industry a level of credibility when engaging with policymakers. Voters are far more likely to blame trade policies and immigration enforcement for rising food costs than they are to blame the farmers themselves.

The Immigration Leverage Point

One of the most delicate issues for the dairy industry is immigration, and Yokley’s data suggests a surprising shift in public sentiment. While the political rhetoric around border security remains fiery, the American public’s view on agricultural labor is softening.

“There is an openness among the American people to the idea that these kinds of workers are important to the economy, especially in this inflationary environment,” Yokley explains.

The share of voters who believe there is “about the right number” of seasonal or lower-skilled workers has increased, while the share of those who believe there are “too many” has stalled. This creates a strategic leverage point for the dairy industry to advocate for reform, framing it as a solution to food inflation rather than a purely political issue.

The CEO Conundrum: Public Silence Versus Private Action

Yokley also addressed the role of business leaders in this volatile climate, describing it as a pickle. Morning Consult data shows only a third of voters want to see CEOs speaking out publicly on issues such as trade or immigration. In fact, public attacks on the administration can be more harmful among a leader’s own base than helpful among the general public.

The solution? Private action and the power of trade associations.

“Voters are much more open to private action and lobbying,” Yokley says. “They get that this happens. It underlines the importance of trade associations like IDFA to provide the political cover that individual CEOs might not want to risk.”

Forecasting 2026 and Beyond

Looking ahead to the midterms, Yokley described a “split” reality. The Senate map currently favors Republicans, with high-profile races in Georgia (Jon Ossoff) and Maine (Susan Collins) serving as key bellwethers. The House, however, remains a toss-up, with Democrats needing only a three-to-four-point advantage on the generic ballot to reclaim control.

Finally, Yokley cast an eye toward 2028, noting that California Governor Gavin Newsom is a figure to watch. Newsom’s “fiery rhetoric” and “Trump-style” engagement are activating young voters in a way that feels authentic to the Democratic base.

The Bottom Line for Dairy

Yokley’s concluding message was one of optimism for the industry. In a deeply divided country, milk remains a “wholesome, accessible staple” that doesn’t trigger as much discord as other issues.

“The American people don’t hate milk,” Yokley concludes. “The industry is positioned at the intersection of nutrition and affordability — the two things voters care about most.”

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Specialty Crops Suffered Staggering Economic Losses in 2025, Will Relief Come in Time?

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:35:01 GMT

Economic losses to specialty crops last year were on a level that can put farming operations out of business.

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates $3.6 billion in economic losses for almonds, $1.4 billion for apples, $763 million for lettuce, and $717 million for potatoes alone.

Specialty crop leaders this week renewed their calls for urgent economic support for U.S. growers and shared their disappointment after the U.S. House released final spending bills Jan. 20 that did not include aid for American specialty crop producers.

While the Specialty Crops Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA) says specialty crops, including fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, nursery, greenhouse and floriculture products, generate more than $75 billion annually in U.S. agricultural cash receipts, account for more than one-third of all U.S. crop sales and support rural economies nationwide, under the current USDA Farmer Bridge Assistance program, $11 billion is allocated to row crops, and only $1 billion is reserved for specialty crops and other commodities, with key details on eligibility, payment and timing still unresolved.

“It’s a challenge with specialty crops to come up with aggregated data across all the more than 300 different commodities, but the American Farm Bureau Federation has done good analysis related to specialty crops,” says Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council and SCFBA co-chair.

“Effectively Farm Bureau is saying that if you’re going to have a relief plan rollout, specialty crops should be about a third of whatever Congress spits out,” he says.

Word on Capitol Hill is Congress is contemplating a total of $15 billion in assistance, SCFBA says.

“We agree with the one-third of whatever Congress comes up with, but also the package has to be large enough to make a material impact,” Quarles says. “The specialty crop industry has told Congress that we need no less than $5 billion in economic relief for specialty crops in order to positively move the needle for growers.

With food affordability still a top focus for many consumers, what happens to the cost of fruits, vegetables and other grocery staples if specialty crops don’t receive the aid they desperately need?

“We’re facing an unprecedented economic crisis in the U.S. right now for agriculture, and it’s not just specialty crops, it’s broader than that,” Quarles says. “If you have growers that are going out of business due to this economic crisis, that’s going to further impact supplies of commodities. It’s going to impact prices, and it will add to the affordability issue.”

Last week SCFBA joined American Farm Bureau Federation and ag organizations across the U.S. in penning a letter to Congress highlighting record-high input costs, labor shortages, weather challenges and historically low market prices that have caused farmers to face negative margins and nearly $100 billion in losses nationwide.

Reasons for Optimism

Quarles says feedback from both the House and Senate appropriations committees on the specialty crop crisis has been encouraging.

“They absolutely understand where we’re coming from,” he says. “The other thing to remember is that there have been fundamental changes in tax policy that were put into law last summer, and they’ve already started to come online. And when some of the trade agreements that have been discussed are finalized, they also could create a more competitive environment, along with the tax policy.”

But could this be a case of too little, too late?

“These policy recommendations could create a much better environment in the future, but if you’re out of business before you ever get to that better environment, it just doesn’t matter,” Quarles says. “So that’s the imperative of this economic relief; we need a short-term safety net or a bridge, whatever you want to call it, to get producers from this crisis into an area where they can start to take advantage of some of these changes.”

Another bright spot, he says, is how effectively the industry, along with he and his SCFBA co-chairs, including Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association; Mike Joyner, president of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association; and Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers, are working together.

“The industry has really rallied together under the umbrella of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance,” Quarles says. “Twenty years ago, this was not the way the industry worked, but the alliance has created a kind of muscle memory, where we know how to all get around the table. We know how to look at a particular situation, develop a strategy, and then everybody disperses out to where they have strengths across the United States.”

“It has really been the best of the fresh produce industry rallying together to try to get some relief for our grower members,” he continues. “I’m very hopeful that we’re going to get something positive done here.”

Trump Signs Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act into Law

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 15:52:05 GMT

President Donald Trump has signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 into law, clearing the way for whole and 2% milk to return to America’s school cafeterias for the first time in more than a decade.

Schools Regain Full Milk Options

The bipartisan legislation reverses Obama-era restrictions that limited federally supported school meal programs to fat-free or low-fat milk options. The bill passed both chambers of Congress unanimously in late 2025, signaling broad agreement around child nutrition, school meal flexibility and dairy market access.

Under the new law, schools may now offer a wider range of fluid milk choices, including flavored and unflavored organic or conventional whole, 2%, 1%, skim and lactose-free milk. Supporters say the expanded menu better reflects current nutrition science and aligns school offerings with what families commonly consume at home.

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Farm and Dairy Groups Sing Praises

Farm organizations quickly praised the signing, calling it a practical policy win for both students and farmers.

“Farmers applaud Rep. GT Thompson and Sen. Roger Marshall for working to return whole milk to America’s schools, and to the president for signing the legislation today,” says Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. “The commonsense, bipartisan bill ensures children will have access to important vitamins, protein and other nutrients while supporting dairy farmers who need access to expanded markets for their product.”

Dairy industry leaders emphasized that milk’s full nutritional profile was a key driver behind the legislation.

“Dairy farmers and their cooperatives couldn’t be more thrilled that whole and 2% milk is returning to school meals,” says Gregg Doud, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation. “Dairy is a nutrition powerhouse that should be used to its fullest potential — and that means making it available in the same varieties families consume at home.”

Doud says NMPF is prepared to support implementation efforts as schools update menus and procurement plans.

“We are ready to help schools and USDA in any way we can as this important legislation is implemented, and we thank the Trump administration, our advocates on Capitol Hill, and everyone who has worked to make school meals better through increased access to dairy,” he says.

The International Dairy Foods Association also hailed the signing as a long-awaited milestone.

“The long wait is over! Whole milk is coming back to schools,” says Michael Dykes, president and CEO of IDFA. “This law is a win for our children, parents and school nutrition leaders, giving schools the flexibility to offer the flavored and unflavored milk options, across all healthy fat levels, that meet students’ needs and preferences.”

Dykes thanked a broad group of lawmakers for advancing the bill, including U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier and Thompson, and U.S. Sen. Peter Welch and Marshall, as well as congressional committee leadership involved in shepherding the legislation through Congress.

“IDFA is deeply grateful to President Trump for signing the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act into law,” Dykes says. “IDFA and our members stand ready to partner with USDA, states and school nutrition leaders to help schools offer the milk options kids prefer so more students can benefit from the 13 essential nutrients that milk provides.”

Schools could begin offering whole and 2% milk as soon as the next school year.

UPDATE: Supreme Court Did Not Issue Ruling on Tariffs Case, Decision Still Pending

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 13:45:23 GMT

UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court chose not to release its ruling on President Trump’s global tariffs Wednesday. A decision is still pending.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue one or more rulings on Wednesday in cases already argued before the justices as major legal disputes remain pending, including litigation testing the legality of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs.

The court is set to release rulings at about 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT). The court does not announce ahead of time which rulings it intends to issue. The court issued one ruling last Friday but did not act in the tariffs case, which was argued on Nov. 5.

The challenge to Trump’s tariffs marks a major test of presidential powers as well as of the court’s willingness to check some of the Republican president’s far-reaching assertions of authority since he returned to office in January 2025. The outcome will impact the global economy.

During arguments in the case, conservative and liberal justices appeared to cast doubt on the legality of the tariffs, which Trump imposed by invoking a 1977 law meant for use during national emergencies. Trump’s administration is appealing rulings by lower courts that he overstepped his authority.

Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on goods imported from individual countries — nearly every foreign trading partner — to address what he called a national emergency related to U.S. trade deficits. He invoked the same law to impose tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, citing the trafficking of the often-abused painkiller fentanyl and illicit drugs into the U.S. as a national emergency.

The challenges to the tariffs in the cases before the Supreme Court were brought by businesses affected by the tariffs and 12 U.S. states, most of them Democratic-governed.

Other cases awaiting rulings include disputes concerning voting rights, religious rights, Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission member, LGBT “conversion therapy” and campaign finance limits, among others.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)

Sticky Fingers: USDA Fraudster Steals $200M in Stunning Scam

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 14:18:52 GMT

A crime “mere mortals wouldn’t even contemplate.” An astounding $210-million haul pulled out the front doors of USDA.

Who steals over $200 million in fake USDA loans, drives a Rolls, runs a chop-shop, and jet-sets the globe? Who attempts to escape in a chartered plane, carries on scheming behind bars, draws his wife into the action, and triples down with more swindles—all after pleading guilty?

Nik Patel. The Florida-based con artist steered a chain of astonishing agriculture-related scams, each more jaw-dropping than the previous, and racked up a whopping 52-year sentence in the federal pen.

Welcome to the manic reign of a brazen fraudster who forged his own fall. The biter got bit.

Life in the Fast Lane
In 2012, First Farmers Financial, helmed by CEO Nik Patel, was flying high with a flagship location in Orlando, Fla., and satellite offices in California and Georgia.

Twenty-nine years young and married with children, Patel hitched his wagon to USDA, specifically to the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, under the guise of helping rural communities. To ride USDA’s coattails, Patel and First Farmers COO Tim Fisher crafted a lie from whole cloth. They fabricated documents claiming a solid business structure, deep experience, and assets exceeding $20 million with Wells Fargo.

Fisher, later pinched by the feds and sentenced to 10 years, fessed up. “In order for us to establish the business, I assisted in creating falsified financial statements, falsified resumes, and falsified other background documents between our company, so that we could get a USDA approval from the United States, in order for us to do loans for the USDA.”

Translated: USDA bought the head fake and gave certification to First Farmers—based on Patel’s paperwork lies.

USDA certification in hand, Patel went into chop-shop overdrive, forging 26 USDA loans, ranging in value from $2.5 million to $10 million, for a total of $179 million. The 26 loans, polished with bogus USDA employee signatures, fictitious borrower names, and fake USDA loan ID numbers, were a fantasy and had no government backing.

Pictured with then Sen. Marco Rubio, Patel, left, and wife, Trisha, made the political rounds.

(Photo Instagram)

Patel then dangled the $179-million package—a criminally audacious move considering he had no prior felony history. (Patel did have previous misdemeanor convictions in 2011 and 2012, for DUI and assault on a police officer, both of which resulted in short sentences of home confinement.)

First to sniff Patel’s bait was Pennant Management, an investment company in Milwaukee, Wisc. Not willing dupes, but painfully deficient in the vetting department, Pennant reps flew to Florida and were wooed by Patel’s silver-tongued claims that First Farmers stood atop $52 million in assets, $17 million in cash, and a profit line of $1.8 million. All lies.

Patel further impressed Pennant with counterfeit balance sheets for 2011, 2012, and a portion of 2013. Pennant was willing to buy the $179-million package deal. After all, the bundle was almost entirely guaranteed by USDA, according to Patel, who later wrote to Pennant with third-person bravado: “Effectively Nik Patel serves as a one man loan committee—reviewing the opportunities as they flow into him for consideration.”

To ensure Pennant officials didn’t smell the ruse, Patel ginned up “audited financial statements,” for 2013, prepared by esteemed CPA “Geoff Kane.” However, Kane, despite a glowing biography provided by Patel, was a fiction. Kane was Patel.

Where did Patel’s stolen money go? In a hole; offshore; Dubai; family?

(Photos public domain)

In for a dime, in for a dollar. Pennant jumped headfirst and snatched the $179-million offer, wiring the funds to Patel at BMO Harris Bank in Florida.

Cha-ching. Patel hit the fast lane, dumping tens of millions of dollars on hotel projects, a lavish $4-million home, a Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini, boats, custom suits, jewelry, part ownership of a jet, international vacations, cathouse visits to a favored brothel in Panama—according to prosecutors, and political donations, even opening his home to host a fundraiser for then Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Patel was just warming up.

Dubai Diamonds
In September 2014, Pennant got curious. After finding address inconsistencies in First Farmers’ paperwork, Pennant knocked on USDA’s door with a list of borrower names and loan numbers. USDA’s response was damning: Total sham. Name and numbers do not exist.

Panicked, Pennant ran to the FBI. Too little, too late, for the Milwaukee-based investment advisor business. Pennant collapsed the following year.

On Sept. 29, 2014, the feds filed a criminal complaint against First Farmers and Patel. In 2015, he was arraigned in the Northern District of Illinois and pleaded not guilty. However, on Dec. 6, 2016, Patel changed his plea to guilty on five counts of wire fraud . Sentencing was scheduled for April 6, 2017.

In the interim, unfazed by the inconvenience of criminal prosecution, Patel continued spending. He dropped $23,368 on a ski trip and approximately $30,000 on his daughter’s birthday party at a Four Seasons Hotel. And all the while, as he feigned remorse and awaited sentencing, Patel’s second fraud was in motion. In public, he played the penitent and announced a desire to recover money for his victims, requesting—and receiving—sentencing date extensions to generate cash.

Patel, pictured with President Trump, rubbed shoulders with political leaders on both sides of the aisle.

(Photo Instagram)

Behind the outward contrition, Patel was managing the clock, stretching time to organize the second scheme, this time another hoodwink of USDA, along with Farmer Mac, to scam investors in Iowa. While final sentencing for the first fraud was delayed until Jan. 9, 2018, Patel went into overdrive, intending to make another pile of coin and go on the lam.

Starting back in June 2017, he had invented the alias of “Ron Elias,” a fictitious “Vice President of Guaranteed Lending” at Banco Do Brasil (BDB). In reality, there was no such position at BDB and the bank never engaged in USDA lending, but Patel, correctly, predicted nobody would check.

According to DOJ, Patel’s USDA-Farmer Mac con job was three-layered: “First, Patel fabricated fraudulent loan documents that falsely represented that a bank in Miami had authorized loans to be made to convert hotels in rural areas into assisted living facilities. Although the bank in Miami exists, it had never made any of the loans … Second, Patel applied to USDA to guarantee the fake loans pursuant to its Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program. Third, after the USDA agreed to guarantee the fake loans, Patel sold the guaranteed portion of the fake loans to the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, also known as Farmer Mac. Patel executed the scheme on three occasions, receiving almost $20 million in proceeds. Patel used a portion of the funds from that scheme to pay some of his restitution, but he was saving much of it to flee the United States.”

Pocketing $20 million as Ron Elias while on supervised federal release, thanks to loan guarantees provided by USDA and a wad of cash courtesy of Farmer Mac, Patel then applied for political asylum in India and Ecuador, claiming to be a victim of abuse and persecution by DOJ. Palm up, Ecuador accepted. In the months prior to sentencing, Patel lined up a chartered flight, luxury vehicles, $500,000 in emergency cash, beautiful home, private chef, and schools for his daughters in Ecuador.

Patel, alongside then Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

(Photo Instagram)

Partnered with another business crony, Kevin Timirchand, Patel aimed to launder the $20 million by the “cleanest way to do the transaction, kill any trace, and cover everyone,” via a Dubai diamond purchase. DOJ investigators later seized a memo written by Patel, detailing his intentions:

I have arranged a diamond merchant that I trust in Dubai (based out of India-Parsas Patel). He is a major player and I’ve bought from him before, He has a 103.78 carat diamond. Shape is a modified shield, it is VS1 purity, and Color is Fancy Dark with brown greenish and yellow. He will provide a GI and Kimberly Certificate. This Is one of the rarest diamonds in the world that is very sought after. He is also going to sell us 2-3 other diamonds similar to this one (smaller but similar) The 3-4 diamonds he sells us value will look on paper like $30MM and he will invoice for it $30MM.

To cover his absence from his scheduled sentencing in Chicago for the initial $179 million scam, Patel planned to tell DOJ officials he was “going to rehab or a meditation camp for a week, this way they do not suspect anything by my phone being shut off,” while missing his court date.

“I may even use a different name to leave,” he noted. “The only people I have to tell is the pilot so he can document his flight log.”

Kevin Timirchand, Patel’s accomplice in the Farmer Mac fraud.

(Photo public domain)

On a Saturday morning, Jan. 6, 2018, three days prior to sentencing, Patel rolled to Kissimmee Gateway Airport, driven by Timirchand in a Cadillac Escalade. At 7 a.m., as luggage was transferred to a chartered jet, four FBI agents bagged Patel. In his possession, according to DOJ, “Patel had an Indian passport in his name (forged and backdated to 2010), United States currency ($20,000), documents relating to his attempt to obtain asylum in Ecuador, financial documents indicating access to accounts holding millions of dollars, and detailed checklists for tasks relating to obtaining asylum in Ecuador and setting up a new life there for himself and his family.”

Thrown in Florida lockup, Patel already was piling more blocks on the Jenga tower.

Another Drink at the Well
Awaiting transfer to Chicago, Patel pulled levers from behind bars and went all-in on the Ron Elias charade. His crony, Timirchand (later arrested and sentenced to two years in prison), was Patel’s instrument beyond prison walls. Per a DOJ attorney’s testimony in June 2018: Patel instructed Timirchand how to log-in to the account and instructed him which emails to send to various peoples in order to further the fraudulent misrepresentations and to actually cause the funds to be disbursed. There were phone calls to Mr. Timirchand from the jail instructing him how to send emails to someone else, to representatives of the USDA.

On March 6, 2018, Patel, then 34, was sentenced to 25 years for the original $179 million fraud.

Surreally, Patel, federal prisoner #61337-018, was unbowed. It was time for another drink at the USDA well.

House of Cards
The following year, in 2019, while imprisoned for the first fraud ($179 million), and under indictment for the second fraud ($20 million) stemming from the Farmer Mac debacle, Patel engineered a third fraud, this time keeping it in the family. His accomplice? Wife, Trisha Patel.

Via emails, phone calls, and prison visits between 2019 and 2023, the pair spun a wooly web. Rather than Patel taking a fake identity such as Ron Elias or Geoff Kane, Trisha assumed two bogus identities, “Maya Greer” and “Robert Engelmeyer,” later exposed by phony email addresses and burner apps.

The Patels conjured a fictitious lending company, Community 1st Mortgage, fronted by lead officer Maya Green (Trisha).

Trisha Patel masqueraded as Maya Greer and Robert Engelmeyer.

(Photo Facebook)

According to Trisha’s subsequent plea deal: “This new loan scheme had another new concept beyond the creation of a fake lender. It included the use of legitimate business to facilitate the fraud. Nikesh Patel looked for a business that was for sale and discovered a listing for Precision Powered Products, Inc. (PPP), a commercial pump manufacturer in Houston, Texas. The company’s owner wanted to retire after nearly 40 years of running the business. Nikesh Patel Inquired with a broker about the listing in late 2020 and learned specific information about the business.”

Incredibly, the Patels used Texas-based PPP to dupe USDA.

Trisha hid her true identity behind the mask of Robert Engelmeyer, a fictitious PPP executive, who needed an $8,540,000 loan from Community 1st to expand PPP business—not in rural Nebraska or rural New Mexico—but rather, in rural Puerto Rico. Trisha, acting as Robert Engelmeyer, persuaded USDA that PPP needed a loan to boost operations in Cabo Rojo.

And the business address leased by PPP in Cabo Rojo? A vacant building under renovation, with no relation to commercial pump manufacturing. A shell. No one at USDA bothered to check. Instead, USDA backed the $8,540,000 loan at 80%.

After securing USDA’s guarantee, Trisha, masquerading as Maya Greer of Community 1st, sold the loan for $7,446,880 on Nov. 21, 2021, to Hanover Securities, a broker-dealer in Memphis, Tenn. (According to Trisha’s later plea, Hanover “broke the loan into smaller portions and resold them to smaller banks. To avoid detection, Trisha Patel would pay the loan payments each month for each of these loans using fraud proceeds.”)

The day of sale, Hanover wired $7-plus million to Community 1st and Maya Greer. Trisha emailed her husband at Seminole County Jail in Florida, writing: “It’s here!!!! Finally.”

Patel answered: “Amazing news! I will call after count, after 5 pm. Make sure its showing credited and available.”

Trisha Patel, second from left, attends a White House Diwali event October 2022, during the Biden Administration.

(Photo Instagram.)

Trisha then doled $1.2 million of the haul to “various attorneys, lobbyists, and consultants on behalf of Nikesh Patel,” greasing the political skids for Patel’s release. (Keeping up appearances, she also spent $81,000 on a new BMW.) Trisha made the rounds of high society on both sides of the political aisle, even popping up at a White House party in October 2022.

However, the Patel’s house of cards finally crashed in 2023, as the FBI and USDA Office of Inspector General discovered the paper trail. Trisha was arrested; Patel, already under lock and key, was given a cell cleanout. As described by FBI Special Agent Alex Duda, the results were telltale: “On Sept. 20, 2023, officials at the Seminole County Jail conducted a cell search of Nikesh Patel’s cell. The officials observed a large quantity of documents, estimated to consist of approximately 3,000 pages, in six neat stacks under Patel’s mattress. The officials characterized the amount of documents located in Patel’s cell as ‘substantial’ and ‘extraordinary.’”

Wash, rinse, repeat. Once again, it was time for Patel’s sentencing, but this time Trisha also faced the music.

Sticky Fingers, Twisted Threads
No one left to lie to. On Sept. 18, 2024, Trisha, 41, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison, and is currently incarcerated at FCI Marianna , Florida. A month later, Oct. 8, 2024, Patel was sentenced to 27 years on top of his previous 25 years—a draconian total of 52 years in the pen, a disproportionate sentence in the eyes of many legal observers. He is doing time at FCI Bennettsville , South Carolina.

Patel, left, hosting a fundraiser at his home for Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

(Photo Facebook)

Strikingly, on the heels of his near-escape to Ecuador during his second con (Farmer Mac), and after his third con (USDA-PPP) was in motion, Patel, on July 6, 2020, while incarcerated, authored a third-person post on Medium , claiming victimhood due to “racial tactics” by DOJ: “The pattern of prosecutorial misconduct against people of color extended to ignoring evidence and making willfully false claims in the case against Patel,” he wrote. “It demonstrates a pattern of misconduct that Patel is hoping to further expose in his clemency plea.”

At the post’s end, he signed off: “Nikesh Patel, former Investment Banker, resident of Florida and the subject of overzealous prosecution. Hoping to get justice and have my narrative told.”

Patel’s claims of injustice gained the attention of Jesse Jackson in 2022. Jackson urged the U.S. attorney’s office to release Patel on home confinement. A mere 10 months after Jackson’s advocacy, Patel’s fraud No. 3 exploded, along with its surreal narrative tied to 3,000 pages stuffed under a mattress and Puerto Rican pump fakes, all bookended by another 27 years on Patel’s sentence. As of 2026, Patel describes himself as a “political prisoner” and seeks a presidential pardon.

From the get-go, the threads of Patel’s crime saga twisted deep. All told, he siphoned approximately $210 million. Where did the money go? The feds recovered over $100 million. The rest? In a hole; offshore; Dubai; family?

Nik Patel steered a chain of astonishing agriculture-related scams and racked up a 52-year sentence in the pen.

(Photo public domain)

Judge Charles Kocoras, when sentencing Patel back in 2018 for the first $179-million con job, presciently described the con artist extraordinaire: “There’s a certain diabolical genius to what he did here.”

Kocoras added a sobering kicker, particularly considering Patel’s second and third frauds were yet to spawn. Kocoras described the tangled, initial scheme as one that “most mere mortals wouldn’t even contemplate.”

Despite knowing the fuse was already burning on more theft, Patel solemnly assured the court: “It is going to be my actions that will show remorse.”

Actions, indeed.

For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told

How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer

Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust

Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing

Farmer Unearths Lost Treasure, Solves WW2 Mystery

Economists Forecast Farm Economy to Stabilize, But High Costs and Policy Uncertainty Block a 2026 Rebound

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 18:26:39 GMT

As 2026 ushers in a fresh start, agricultural economists say the U.S. farm economy has stopped sliding, but it’s far from fully healed.

The December Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor shows month-to-month sentiment is improving, but deep structural strain remains — especially in row crops. Meanwhile, livestock markets continue to provide strength. Crop producers face another year of tight margins driven by high input costs, weak prices and unresolved trade and policy uncertainty.

“There’s cautious optimism,” the economists say, “but very little belief that 2026 will bring a meaningful rebound without cost relief or stronger demand.”

Those themes mirror the perspective of Seth Meyer, former USDA chief economist and now director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri. In a recent interview, Meyer connected the dots between narrow margins, policy responses and what might actually move the dial for U.S. agriculture heading into 2026.

Stabilizing, Not Recovering

December Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor

(Lori Hayes )

Economists see the ag economy holding its ground — but not gaining strength.

54% say the ag economy is somewhat better than one month ago.
Compared with a year ago:
- 42% say conditions are worse
- 33% say they are better
Looking ahead 12 months:
- 46% expect conditions unchanged
- 38% expect improvement
- 15% expect conditions to worsen

“Momentum has improved since mid-2025,” Meyer notes, “but tight margins have been with us for a long time. Turning that around requires demand growth, not just price stabilization.

Farm Journal’s December Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor

(Lori Hayes )

Grant Gardner, assistant Extension professor at the University of Kentucky, tells AgriTalk’s Chip Flory: “I think as we move into kind of this next marketing year, you’re looking at what looks like a breakeven and not a loss, but breakeven still doesn’t look great after three years of breakeven or losses.”

He says even with the $11 billion in Farmer Bridge Program payments , it won’t drastically change the outlook for the farm economy.

“Purdue had a good survey about a month ago, where they looked at what were these payments going to go to, and research would show that a lot of these payments go into long-term assets, and so land tractors, but I think over 60% of producers right now are in such a tight cash crunch that you’re going to see a lot of these payments go into that short-term debt,” Gardner says.

Consolidation a Growing Threat

Economists are nearly unanimous that the crop sector remains under extreme financial stress. 83 percent say row crops are currently in a recession. That isn’t about production declines — acres and yields haven’t collapsed — but about persistently weak profitability.

“Negative returns for at least the third consecutive year across nearly all row crops,” one economist wrote in the survey.

Another said: “Margins remain below full costs of production for many producers.”

Farm Journal’s December Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor

(Lori Hayes)

Meyer traces that back to how abruptly agriculture moved from the high prices of 2021 and 2022 into today’s tighter margins.

“We moved very quickly from a very high price environment and good profitability in 2022 to very tight margins,” he says. “That usually happens coming off price peaks, but this time it happened really rapidly.”

A minority of survey respondents argued farms are “treading water,” supported by strong land values and government aid rather than eroding further, which Meyer acknowledged aligns with how risk and safety nets have interacted this year.

But when you look at how the current stress in the farm economy could impact consolidation, the ag economists say it’s the economic pressure combined with demographic trends causing the acceleration. In fact, 92% of them say consolidation is underway and unavoidable.

“Markets go to the lowest-cost producers,” one economist wrote. “That sorting is consolidation on the production side.”

Aging producers exiting and rent-heavy operations under pressure only add fuel to that trend, with one economist saying: “Consolidation happens because producers have to exit, not because they want to.

What’s Driving the Farm Economy Right Now

When economists were asked to identify the two most important factors shaping agriculture’s economic health today, their responses clustered around a familiar, but increasingly sharp, divide: strong demand in livestock and the protein sector versus persistent oversupply and cost pressure in crops, all layered with trade and policy uncertainty.

Several economists pointed to continued strength in beef demand, both domestically and through export channels, as a key stabilizing force. While the dairy sector is an area that shows signs of weakness for 2026.

“Livestock revenues are a bright spot,” one respondent noted, underscoring why the livestock sector continues to outperform crops financially.

Looking to 2026, economists overwhelmingly point to input costs, not interest rates, as the biggest barrier to profitability. Nearly 70% cited input prices as the largest challenge as well, far ahead of trade concerns or capital availability.

Farm Journal’s December Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor

(Lori Hayes )

“We have too much supply and not enough demand for row crops,” one economist wrote.

Another said: “Input costs are still too high.”

Trade remains a central wild card, especially relationships with China and uncertainty around global supply. Several respondents cited trade disputes and agreements as critical factors, along with questions about the size of South American crops and how that could shape global competition in the months ahead.

Policy uncertainty was also featured prominently, with economists pointing to domestic biofuels policy, government payments and broader market signals as factors influencing both short-term cash flow and longer-term demand growth.

Overall, economists say the ag economy is being pulled in opposite directions: strong livestock demand providing support, while crops struggle under high costs, oversupply and unresolved trade and policy questions — a dynamic that helps explain why the broader farm economy feels stable, but far from healthy, as 2026 approaches.

Livestock: A Continued Bright Spot

Livestock continues to stand out as the most financially healthy segment of the ag economy. Every economist surveyed rated beef as above average or excellent, supported by strong domestic demand and tight supplies. Dairy and pork were viewed as stable to moderately strong.

That success creates a stark contrast with row crops, where corn and cotton were cited by 38% each as the commodities most at risk financially in 2026.

What Could Move Crop Prices in the Next Six Months

Looking ahead to the first half of 2026, economists say crop prices will hinge less on domestic fundamentals and more on global supply, trade flows and policy clarity.

Across responses, South America emerged as the dominant influence, with economists repeatedly citing Brazilian weather, the size of the South American harvest and how those supplies compete with U.S. exports. Several noted that clarity around South American production will be critical in setting price direction for corn, soybeans and wheat.

Trade, particularly with China, remains another key swing factor. Economists emphasized not just the announcement of trade agreements, but whether purchases translate into actual shipments.

“China purchases of U.S. crops, but also if and when actual shipments occur,” one respondent noted, adding that details within any trade deal, including purchase commitments, will matter just as much as headlines.

Domestic factors still play a role, but economists see them as secondary in the near term. Input prices, early U.S. planting conditions and assumptions about 2026 acreage were all cited as important — especially as markets begin to trade expectations for next year’s crop mix.

Policy uncertainty also hangs over the outlook. Economists pointed to ongoing questions around trade policy, biofuels policy and broader economic conditions as variables that could amplify or mute price moves.

Economists say crop prices over the next six months are likely to be driven by how global supply unfolds, whether export demand materializes and how quickly policy uncertainty is resolved, rather than by any single domestic production shock.

Biofuels Policy: A Potential Turning Point?

One of the clearest themes Meyer highlights as a possible game changer for demand, and ultimately prices, is biofuels policy.

For economists, policy levers like year-round E15, Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volumes, 45Z investment tax credits and how small refinery exemptions are handled could meaningfully influence demand for corn and soybeans in 2026 and beyond.

“It’s one of the places where policymakers actually have levers to help with tight margins in the row crop sector,” Meyer says.

He emphasizes that final rules on RFS volumes and how biobased credits are implemented could impact feedstock demand.

“For the next couple of crop seasons, RVO (Renewable Volume Obligations) and how EPA reallocates small refinery exemptions are big factors,” Meyer says. “Should we raise the RVO to soak up that pool like a sponge? Should imported feedstocks get full 45Z credit? Those decisions could move demand.”

On year-round E15, a long-sought policy priority for corn growers, Meyer is cautiously optimistic.

“I do think it matters,” he says. “Maybe it’s not a huge swing this year, but offering certainty and building demand over multiple seasons is supportive. Other countries like Brazil are ramping up their biofuels production too, so this isn’t happening in a vacuum.”

Policy Uncertainty Still Looms

Economists also flagged top priorities for 2026 policy action:

Year-round E15 (row crops)
Trade policy clarity (row crops & livestock)
Labor reform and regulatory issues (livestock)

They also highlighted under-covered risks, which include pressure on land rents and values, labor shortages, biofuels policy details (such as 45Z credits) and slower population growth affecting long-term demand.

What Could Move Livestock and Dairy Prices in the Next Six Months

When economists look ahead to livestock and dairy markets in early 2026, they see a mix of strong demand signals, supply-side risks and policy uncertainty shaping price direction.

Consumer demand remains the cornerstone of the outlook, particularly for beef. Several economists pointed to continued buying interest from U.S. consumers as the primary support for cattle prices, even as affordability pressures rise. At the same time, some warned that a more “K-shaped” economy could begin to shift demand, pulling some consumers away from beef and toward pork.

Supply dynamics and herd trends are another major focus. Economists cited herd size, potential herd expansion and the availability of feeder cattle as critical variables. The expected resumption of feeder cattle imports from Mexico was highlighted as a key factor that could influence cattle supplies and pricing, depending on timing and volume.

Animal health risks also remain on the radar. Issues such as avian influenza, screwworm and other disease threats were mentioned as potential disruptors that could quickly alter supply conditions in both livestock and dairy markets.

Policy and trade uncertainty continues to hover over the sector. Economists pointed to ongoing questions around tariffs, restrictions on live animal trade with Mexico and the next steps under the USMCA as factors that could impact both imports and exports. Political uncertainty more broadly was also cited as a potential source of market volatility.

For dairy, economists noted that beef-on-dairy dynamics are likely to continue weighing on milk prices by increasing beef supplies while complicating dairy herd decisions.

Taken together, economists say livestock and dairy prices over the next six months will be driven by a delicate balance between strong consumer demand, evolving supply conditions and unresolved trade and policy questions, with any shift in one of those areas capable of moving markets quickly.

Acreage Expectations: Stress, Not Shock

Despite margin pressure, economists do not expect dramatic acreage pullbacks in 2026. Most expect:

Corn: 93 to 95 million acres
Soybeans: 84 to 86 million acres
Wheat: 44 to 45 million acres
Cotton: 9 to 10 million acres

Corn acreage expectations have edged lower since November, as economists backed away from another year above 95 million acres. At the same time, soybean acreage expectations have firmed, with 75% now targeting 84 to 86 million acres, suggesting stronger relative economics for beans.

“Export demand has helped keep corn acres supported,” Meyer says. “The question is whether that demand holds and whether policy supports it.”

As for acreage, the major impact on prices would be a large acreage reduction, which is unlikely.

“That’s what it comes down to, too. What I’ve been thinking about is what else can you use land for? And you’ve got the pushback on urban sprawl, you’ve got pushback on other uses for ag land. But right now, the simple fact is we’ve got way too much production. Without that slowing, or a drastic increase in demand, I don’t see prices improving to very lucrative levels,” Gardner says.

Overall, The Ag Economy Is a Grind, Not a Rebound

When you look at all the results from the December Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor, economists paint a picture of an industry that has stopped getting worse, but has not yet found a path to durable profitability.

Crops remain mired in margin compression; livestock continues to outperform but remains sensitive to policy decisions. Government aid is buying time but not addressing structural challenges, but it’s policy outcomes, especially around biofuels, trade and E15, that could be decisive in shaping 2026 outcomes.

For now, the farm economy has found a floor. The tougher question, economists say, is whether policy can help lift it, or if it will continue to grind forward without a genuine rebound.

Related News: As Screwworm Inches Closer, When Could the U.S. Reopen the Southern Border to Cattle Imports?

Automate or Relocate: The $1,600-Per-Acre Crisis Facing U.S. Growers

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:17:23 GMT

Walt Duflock, senior vice president of innovation with Western Growers, says it’s a challenging time for ag labor. While the domestic labor supply has dwindled, more growers have used the H-2A guestworker program, he says.

“Every time we turn around, we’re talking about labor shortages in the fresh produce industry,” he says. “How bad is it? It is bad, and it’s not getting better.”

Duflock, whose organization represents around 2,300 growers, joined “AgriTalk” to discuss the current state of ag labor and the challenges to automation. Duflock says those growers using the H-2A guestworker program have additional regulatory costs, which have caused wages to skyrocket.

“A lot of folks said, boy, when we get to $20 an hour for farm labor, that’s going to be Armageddon,” he says. “Well, we zip right past that with H-2A because you throw an adverse effect wage rate, which is the minimum wage for those folks, into the mix. That’s almost $20. And then you house them, you transport them and you feed them. That’s $28 to $30.So the fastest growing percentage of California labor right now is the highest cost part of it. And there’s no end in sight.”

Duflock says an analysis by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, calculated the true costs of ag labor. In 2005, that figure was $109 an acre. In 2017, that number jumped to $977 an acre. In 2024, that figure came to $1,600 an acre.

“Same farmer, same operator, same crop, 20 years apart, $1,600 per acre per year,” he says of which is about 80% in labor.

So, what is the industry to do? Duflock says it’s simple: automate or relocate. He says using the Census of Agriculture data from 1997 to 2022 and then projected to 2052, he estimates the state of California will lose a significant number of farms.

“We are forecast to lose one-third of our acres in California and over half of our farmers in 50 years,” he says. “So, we will be down to less than 20 million acres from 2029. We will be down to 43,000 farmers from 87.”

Duflock says a lot of that attrition is due to production moving outside the U.S. to other countries with less regulatory pressure, better water availability and a steady stream of labor. But, for U.S. growers, technology is a strong path forward.

“Right now, where we’re making progress is on the non-harvest activities,” he says. “That’s about one-third of the hours.”

Duflock says growers paid about $16.3 billion for about 850 million hours of labor. And automating the non-harvest tasks is a start, but harvest is a real challenge, as it makes up the lion’s share of the labor needed.

“We’ve effectively got zero percent of fresh harvest automated at the moment,” he says. “That is 560 million hours that we bought last year.”

Duflock says he sees the potential for about 15% to 20% of harvest automation in the next few years, but to get there, there will need to be industry investment.

“We need private-public, and we need some new investment strategies for harvest,” he says.

Data Reveals How the Ag Labor Crisis Drives Up Food Prices

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 23:05:35 GMT

Zach Rutledge, an assistant professor in the department of agricultural, food and resource economics at Michigan State University, joined a panel of growers as part a webinar series from Grow it Here to discuss the impact of labor challenges on the fresh produce industry.

“When you have a decrease in the labor supply, that’s going to put upward pressure on farm wages, it’s going to reduce domestic production and reduce the supply of goods that are produced here in the U.S.,” he says. “Ultimately, in aggregate, when we look nationally, a reduced supply of production means that that’s going to put upward pressure on food prices.”

Rutledge says there are several reasons why there’s a decline in farmworkers from better job opportunities in non-farm sectors in the U.S., to better opportunities in other countries that would supply farmworkers. Immigrant farmworkers who have settled down in the U.S. no longer follow the crops from the south to the north throughout the growing season. And those workers who came to the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s have not been replaced.

“In the 1990s, there was about 50% to 60% of the workers would migrate at least 75 miles to work on a farm away from their home,” he says. “The share of those workers has just declined since the turn of the millennium. Now we have only about 10% or 15% of the workforce willing to migrate to work on farms.”

He says following interviews of 2,500 growers in California, he’s discovered the average labor shortage is about 20% of growers.

Rutledge also shares his economic model to highlight the link between changes in the specialty crop labor market and food prices.

“When you have a 10% reduction in farm employment, that causes a 2.94% increase in food prices in aggregate across the U.S.” he says. “We have a specialty crop sector that’s worth about $115 billion per year. So, what that translates to is an additional $3.4 billion in food prices.”

Growers’ Perspective

Lisa Tate, a fifth-generation citrus and avocado grower in southern California, discussed some of the challenges of a lack of contracted labor crews. She says when her family requests a crew during a labor shortage, a farm labor contractor might send fewer workers, which slows down harvest and creates a ripple effect throughout her family’s business.

“Packing houses can’t run at full efficiency,” she says. “Fruit isn’t always picked at peak maturity. Other farms wait longer for crews, and most importantly, for the growers, the fruit quality suffers. So lower quality affects grading and ultimately reduces the price farmers receive for their goods.”

Tate says growers can’t stop or slow production, and often in labor shortages, that means crews work overtime, which is extremely costly in the state of California.

“These additional costs don’t get passed along to the retailers and eventually the consumer, because growers often don’t know the price they’ll receive at harvest,” she says. “In many cases, my payment doesn’t arrive until nine months later, which makes it hard to know in real time whether continuing to harvest is financially sustainable. Even if I was able to adjust the price, the higher prices make us less competitive with foreign growers.”

And, she says this takes a toll on growers, who often decide to leave agriculture altogether instead of cutting back.

“The most serious impacts of labor instability build slowly, which is why they’re really easy to miss,” she says. “Crops keep growing, and harvests continue just more slowly and less efficiently, making them even less financially competitive with foreign growers. And the problem doesn’t always immediately show up in the production numbers or at the grocery store, but over time, those effects add up as farmland and farmers are lost.”

Brandon Raso of Variety Farms in Hammonton, N.J., says this past year his family struggled to find enough workers to harvest the blueberries on his family’s 650-acre farm. He says his family typically needs about 600 to 700 workers but could only find about 200 workers.

“I’ve calculated that we lost 2.5 million pounds of blueberries last year due to falling on the ground — just due to the fact that we couldn’t harvest,” he says. “We’ve seen a huge exodus in multigenerational farms in our area. Just in the past two years, we’ve seen three farmers close their doors based off the fact that we can’t find the workers to get the crop harvested.”

Raso echoes what Tate says in that he doesn’t know what the end price will be.

“We’re price takers, not price makers, which is always an important thing to remember with all commodities, for the most part,” he says. “At the end of the day, whether I produce a million pounds or 10 million pounds, I don’t dictate the amount of money that I bring back to the farm to keep us sustainable year to year.”

What About Mechanization?

Raso says his family has invested significantly in new plantings, but that will take his family about eight to nine years to be in full production and get a return on the investment. Raso says he’s been asked about investing in new technology and automation to offset the loss of labor. He says with blueberries, there’s so many different aspects from fields to packing.

“The cost is so unsustainable for us to even think about investing in those sorts of systems, that it’s out of the question,” he says. “Farming, in many ways, it’s still such a primitive occupation. You grow a crop, you harvest it, and you ship it, and there’s only a few ways to do that. Yes, things have improved. Technology has improved. It’s definitely aided us in being competitive. But, you know, at the end of the day, if you have a T-shirt factory and no workers show up, how many T-shirts can you make? None. Why? Because you still need people there to turn the equipment on. You still need people to open the doors, turn the lights on. In most cases, it comes down to the number of people you have to operate that business.”

Linda Pryor, a third-generation apple grower from Hilltop Farm in Hendersonville, N.C., agrees, noting her family has used as much mechanization as possible.

“If there is an opportunity to mechanize, we have used it because the labor is so expensive,” she says. “Any type of reasonable machinery is going to pay for itself really quickly. And additionally, there’s just places that these machines can’t get to. I don’t farm on flat ground. I farm on hillsides. And so having machinery that is capable of doing that, and even if those types of machines existed, which they don’t, it would be really difficult for them to get into a lot of the places, so wherever possible, we definitely do mechanize, but there’s just a lot that just needs people.”

Upfront Costs to Growers

Tate says her family sends the picked fruit to the packinghouse that washes and stores it and then sells it. Tate says her family pays all the costs up front without knowing what the end return will be.

“The way that it works is, whatever the money [the packinghouse gets], everybody gets paid in the process,” she says. “Whatever is left over is what the farmer gets. And sometimes that’s good, you get a lot of money, and sometimes you end up owing money at the end of it. You don’t know until much later in the season that that’s what it is.”

And she says it might take multiple bad years before growers give up.

“You have to remember that we’re on an 80-year life cycle with some of our trees,” she says. “If we’re taking out some, maybe we invested in 20 years ago, we still haven’t recouped the cost of that investment for 20 more years. If we make that really tough decision to remove that crop and replace it with something, it’s a huge loss.”

Brandon Batten, a sixth-generation blueberry grower from Triple B Farms in Johnson County, N.C., says a lot of his family’s returns are based on supply and demand. Once crews harvest the blueberries and they’re in the cooler, his family starts making calls.

“If there’s a lot of blueberries in the market, your price is going to be a little bit lower,” he says. “If there’s a little bit of an opening, we make a few more bucks. But at the end of the day, there’s never the decision to say, ‘hey, let’s, let’s hang back a couple days,’ or ‘let’s put it off and maybe come back next week and see what we got.’ Once the crops are on, it’s seven days a week until the season is over a couple of months later.”

Batten also says his family fronts the costs of the labor, materials and packaging, and he says his family often won’t see payments for 60 days.

“It’s always nail-biting,” he says. “You know, once the season is over and the smoke settles, you see what you’re left with. And you know, hopefully you have a few bucks to make a few investments and get ready for next year.”

How 2025 Policy Shifts Will Define Farm Labor in 2026

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 14:42:28 GMT

Editor’s note: This is the final story in a series exploring the current state of labor in the fresh produce industry.

The ag labor landscape looks much different at the end of 2025 than it did in January, amid several policy updates. The fresh produce industry has long advocated for the need to reform and streamline the H-2A guest worker program, and some changes have come to fruition.

The year featured several key shifts. In August, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service announced it would discontinue the agency’s Farm Labor Survey, which the Department of Labor previously used to set the minimum Adverse Effect Wage Rate. In October, the DOL issued an interim final rule that fundamentally changes how the AEWR is calculated. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security moved to streamline the H-2A petition process, a change that now allows DHS and the DOL to concurrently process H-2A visas. Finally, the Trump administration also took steps to halt and repeal the DOL’s controversial 2024 Worker Protection Rule.

“We’ve had a great 2025 both on the regulatory side,” says Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. “I’m optimistic we’re going to be able to get a lot done in 2026.”

Diane Kurrle, senior vice president of the U.S. Apple Association, says that, for the most part, these regulatory changes are a win for the industry.

“What’s in the interim final rule is much better from the perspective of the apple industry than what the status quo had been, which was pushing apple growers out of business,” she says. “Which was driven by just the dramatic increases that AEWR had year after year and how out of sync it was with the rest of the economy.”

Ending the Farm Labor Survey is another positive step, Kurrle says.

“The fact that USDA did make the decision not to continue doing the Farm Labor Survey and using that as the basis for the AEWR is also something that we’ve been advocating for a number of years, and so that too was something that I would consider a victory for USApple and for all H-2A users,” she says.

Optimism hasn’t necessarily been something associated with ag labor. There are a few matters with these policy updates that need to be ironed out, but the industry, at first glance, appears cautiously optimistic looking ahead to 2026.

Potential Challenges

With comment period for the interim final rule on how AEWR is calculated now closed, the industry awaits any potential updates to the rule. There have also been some legal challenges that will play out in court.

In November, the United Farm Workers of America, the UFW Foundation and individual farmworkers filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California to halt the interim final rule.

“Our understanding is that the administration is going to step in and defend that rule,” says Rebecca Hause-Schultz, a partner with Fisher Phillips, a law firm that specializes in labor and employment law. “We expect there will be groups filing amicus briefs in support of the rule.”

While this law isn’t perfect and there are questions about how the Standard Occupational Classification codes in the interim final rule would be assigned, Hause-Schultz says this is a net positive.

“I think, on the whole, the industry is happier with the interim final rule than an AEWR that was spiraling out of control just exponentially year over year,” Hause-Schultz says. “So, we expect there to be some support in the industry to support the administration’s effort to defend that rule and the rollout and what they did.”

Implementation Challenges

Kate Tynan, senior vice president for the Northwest Horticultural Council, agrees, noting that she hopes for more clarity as the DOL assesses public comments.

“It’s now just more a matter of understanding exactly how to apply [it]. Is a job going to be considered Skill Level 1 or Skill Level 2? I think that’s the biggest question folks have, which again, it’s more of an administrative issue,” she says. “Anytime you have a new regulation come out, especially with a program that’s already as complex as the H-2A program, trying to understand how that’s all going to play out is always a challenge. It’s good news across the board. It’s just kind of the devil’s administrative details of this structure.”

Hause-Schultz says one thing she’s heard from clients is a lot of inquiries on how other agricultural operations will set wages for 2026.

“The biggest question I’m getting is, ‘OK, what are we doing? Are we keeping rates? Are we freezing rates? Are we going down to the minimum that we can pay? Are we kind of meeting somewhere in the middle? What are we doing in response?’” she says. “That has been all over the map of what employers plan to do for their next contract.”

Tom Bortnyk, senior vice president of development and general counsel for H-2A provider másLabor, says one bright spot in some of this wage variability is the potential for upward mobility of farmworkers, where new workers without experience might start at a lower wage with the potential to reach the wages of established workers.

“You start to see market forces, even though this rule has only been in effect for a couple of months, where they say, ‘OK, now workers have some choice,’” he says. “Now there’s actually competition in the labor market. And now, on top of that, there’s upward mobility for the first time.”

Additional Considerations

Hause-Schultz says another thing to keep in mind is that with any major change, leadership must communicate these adjustments to workers openly and transparently.

“I’m a big proponent of having informational sessions with employees whenever there is a large change in your operation and being candid about this is what we’re doing,” she says. “This is why we’re doing it. Here’s how it’s going to impact you and information about who to contact. If they have further questions, just open lines of communication, I think on both sides — so that the employee does feel heard and doesn’t feel like they need to go to a third party to get that open ear and line of communication open — so that you’re that entity that they trust.”

Having an approachable person in human resources who can communicate effectively with employees is important, as changes like this, especially if an operation makes a huge wage shift, could leave an agriculture employer open to outside campaigning, Hause-Schultz says.

There’s also the potential for a government shutdown that could also impact H-2A visa processing. However, the produce industry advocated for the DOL to make those processing visas essential during the 43-day shutdown this year. Funding runs out Jan. 30, 2026, which could not come at a worse time for those using the H-2A program.

“That’s when we start filing all those petitions for all those needed workers that we don’t have coming out to the farm and on the ranch,” says NCAE’s Marsh.

Chris Ball, CEO of másLabor, says that while there might be potential issues with visa processing, it’s likely the specialty crop industry won’t truly understand the impacts of the Department of Government Efficiency workforce cuts until March or April. He does say the administration has been working to mitigate potential issues. Consular capacity and appointment availability and the impacts of any reductions in workforce at the State Department could impact H-2A recruitment.

“We don’t know what, how much staffing they’ve cut at these consulates,” Ball says. “So, until we start trying to make these appointments ... we’re just not going to know what that looks like compared to previous years.”

Looking Ahead

Marsh says he hopes to wrap up the litigation that is ongoing with the departments of Labor and Homeland Security, as well as pending AEWR litigation filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.

“We’ve been in negotiation with the Department of Justice to try to put more of a bow overall on that litigation and make sure that something like the Farm Labor Survey can never again be misused to establish wage rates in the H-2A program,” he says.

Marsh also hopes to finish rulemaking for the rescission of the worker protection rule with the Department of Homeland Security.

“The administration will be reviewing all of the comments that they received on that regulation, and that will become a final rule after it goes through that process,” he says.

NCAE has been working with the State Department to provide more transparency on the visa processing, as some growers that use farm labor contractors also have had workers tied up in administrative processing, Marsh says.

Mike Wenkel, chief operating officer with the National Potato Council, says one of the big hurdles in 2026 and beyond will be how the government addresses the existing workforce. He says the administration’s policy is that those who are here illegally need to go home and return through legal channels.

“What does that continue to look like as the administration works through their overall immigration policy, and how do we keep the workforce needed for agriculture in place? That, to me, becomes a question of: If it’s everyone needs to go home, be deported ... and your only way to come back into the country is H-2A, can we meet the needs through that program? Can we legislatively or administratively create a process to allow those individuals to continue working, not as citizens, but give them that temporary legal status?”

As the calendar turns to 2026 and midterm elections loom, there is concern about whether Congress has the appetite to tackle big legislative changes when it comes to ag labor.

“There’s been an agriculture emergency with regard to ag labor costs now for the better part of a decade, and they haven’t been able to get something across the finish line,” Kurrle says.

Wenkel says it’s likely the window for legislative change gets smaller as the calendar inches toward 2026, but it’s something the Ag Workforce Coalition monitors to see if something can happen.

“The time to strike is now,” Marsh says.

Sources say U.S. Rep. GT Thompson, R-Pa., has been working on a piece of legislation to address ag labor following the policy updates, which pulls from recommendations made in the Agriculture Labor Working Group that Thompson chaired. There’s the potential between now and the end of the year that Thompson introduces this legislation and likely has support from House leadership.

Marsh says those recommendations made in the bipartisan Ag Labor Working Group were made by those working in the ag labor space.

“It actually was developed by the people who actually use the program, rather than politicians thinking they know what’s best,” Marsh says. “Agents, attorneys, farmers and ranchers developed this proposed legislation, so hopefully the chairman will utilize a lot of that data.”

Bortnyk says there could be more policy updates coming in 2026 to help ease some regulatory burdens and make the H-2A program more predictable and stable.

“What I would say to anybody who’s trying to look into the crystal ball and try to figure out what might be coming next, I think a good starting point would be looking at what the H-2A working group put together when [U.S. Labor] Secretary [Lori] Chavez-DeRemer was in Congress,” he says. “Famously, she was on the congressional working group that looked at the H-2A program and looked to possible recommendations for program changes and improvements, and a lot of the things that they’ve already done since taking office have been on that list of recommendations by that working group.”

Your next read in this series:

Will Congressional Inaction Force Farmers to Choose Between Health Insurance and Their Farm Budget?

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:16:11 GMT

Healthcare insurance plans for some U.S. farmers could double in 2026, as enhanced federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are scheduled to expire.

The impending cost surge could affect thousands of U.S. farmers who currently rely on the ACA marketplace for their health insurance, according to the non-partisan KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation), a health policy organization.

KFF estimated in 2023 that 27% of “farmers, ranchers, and other agriculture managers” relied on individual ACA market coverage. Nationally, more than 22 million Americans rely on the ACA marketplace for insurance options.

Farmers ‘Don’t Have Many Options’
Iowa farmer Aaron Lehman, who testified before Congress last week, highlighted the severity of the potential cost increase on his family. He said he expects to pay double to purchase an insurance plan for 2026 that would be comparable to what his family had this year.

“That is an incredible cost for our family budget and for our farm budget,” Lehman stated. The fifth-generation farmer and president of the Iowa Farmers Union described how rising healthcare costs are colliding with already harsh economic realities in agriculture.

“Farmers right now are trying to make all sorts of decisions because commodity prices are low, because of the chaotic trade situation that we’re in and higher input prices. All these things have made a real crisis for a lot of our farmers,” said Lehman.

“Finding ways to deal with that, we just don’t have too many options. Farmers will buy less equipment or not make the necessary upgrades and equipment that they need to,” he added. “They’ll look at their input suppliers, and they’ll decide, ‘what can we do to get through just this year … to get a plan to put the crop in the ground?’”

Read the testimony of Aaron Lehman here. A portion of his testimony and discussion is also featured on a posting to YouTube .

Signup Deadlines For Coverage
The challenge for farmers trying to decide on what insurance policy to purchase is compounded by the deadline to enroll in ACA marketplace plans: People needed to choose their ACA plan by Monday for coverage to begin Jan. 1. Open enrollment continues in most states until Jan. 15 for coverage beginning Feb. 1.

Despite broad public support for an extension to the ACA tax credits — a KFF poll said 74% of Americans favor continuing the enhanced credits — a congressional standoff has so far failed to produce a solution:

Failed Votes: Both a Democratic plan to extend the enhanced tax credits for three years and a Republican proposal to replace them with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) failed to pass the Senate last week.
Impending Crisis: Nearly six in 10 enrollees (across all categories) told KFF they could not afford even a $300 annual increase in 2026 without significantly disrupting household finances.
Political Fallout: The issue of healthcare costs and expiring subsidies is highly polarizing, with some Republicans warning that a failure to address the problem could cost them legislative majorities in next year’s mid-term elections.

As the deadline for open enrollment closes and the Dec. 31 subsidy expiration date approaches, farmers must prepare for substantially higher health insurance costs in 2026 unless Congress acts to reach a last-minute agreement.

Young Farmers Need Better Options
During his testimony and ensuing discussion, Lehman stressed that healthcare isn’t just a personal household issue; it’s central to the future of American farming. With the average age of an Iowa farmer at 57, he said the sector desperately needs young and beginning farmers to return to the land. But without affordable, reliable health coverage, inviting the next generation back onto the farm becomes a far riskier proposition.

“You have to be very smart to figure out the plan that can bring the next generation on the farm,” he said, adding that many talented, innovative young people want to farm, but face daunting financial barriers — healthcare high among them. He noted that one of his sons works with him on their family operation, which is based in Polk County, Iowa.

Lehman framed affordable healthcare for farm families as an investment, not a handout: a way to make it possible for young farmers to feed their communities, support local and regional food systems, or continue larger family commodity operations.

“Extending the federal support for lowering the cost of health insurance is a true win for farmers and for all of rural America,” he said.

Farm CPA Estimates Per-Acre Bridge Payment Rates In Anticipation of Final USDA Numbers

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:32:58 GMT

The Trump Administration, recognizing the challenges in farm country related to trade negotiations and the impact on production costs and prices, is rolling out a new $12 billion aid program. The Farmer Bridge Assistance program is a one-time payment delivered to farmers, which the administration says have been impacted by unfair market disruptions.

“We have been looking at the impacts of a lot of components related to agriculture,” explains Richard Fordyce, USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “Some prices are not where we want to see them from the commodity perspective, and inputs seem to be very reluctant to come down, whether that’s fertilizer, crop protection, seed or equipment.”

Higher safety net reference prices for the major crops, approved in the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year, are on the way but they won’t be available until October 2026. Hence, the decision to deliver a “bridge” payment was made, given the income challenges plaguing farmers in several corners of agriculture.

“The increase in those reference prices is going to really make a big difference from a safety net standpoint,” Fordyce adds.

Farmer Bridge Assistance Enrollment Starts Today

Getting enrolled begins today. Eligible producers must verify 2025 acreage reports by Dec. 19.

“I’m going to guess 99% of acreage reports are complete, but we want to give folks who maybe haven’t done an acreage report up to this point the opportunity to get that acreage report filed,” Fordyce says.

He says most farmers likely did an acreage report by July 15 and fall-seeded crops were done in fall 2024.

"[These few days are] for the folks who have not done one or maybe historically don’t do them,” he explains. “It’s an opportunity for those folks to get that done.”

Payment Estimates Before Christmas

Fordyce says once the acreage numbers are in, they’ll finalize the payment rates by crop. Those will be ready by the week of Dec. 22.

“The reason we wanted to get that done before the first of the year is to give some certainty to producers,” Fordyce says. “If they’re trying to secure financing for the 2026 crop year, they’ll understand where they are financially and where this bridge payment will come in [to help] make a difference.”

Farm CPA Paul Neiffer says USDA appears to be considering a calculation for the Farmer Bridge Assistance similar to the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP).

“ECAP took the December 2024 marketing year average estimates from USDA and then subtracted the estimated cost of production for the 2024 crop and then applied a payment percentage,” Neiffer explains. "$10 billion was authorized for ECAP, $11 billion for Farmer Bridge Assistance. Therefore, it is likely Farmer Bridge Assistance payment rates will be at least 10% higher on average.”

Neiffer assumes any increase in the cost of production for 2025 compared with 2024 will be about the same percentage for all crops. Therefore, the only difference between ECAP and FBA is the estimated marketing year average price.

Here are his estimates for final Farmer Bridge Assistance payment rates for six crops:

If this tracks with USDA’s final calculations, it’s clear Southern farmers, those raising cotton and rice, will see higher per-acre payouts than soybean growers in the Midwest. USDA says these payments are expected to be delivered by the end of February 2026.

USDA says Farmer Bridge Assistance applies to producers of a broad list of row crops and oilseeds, including:

Barley
Corn
Cotton
Peanuts
Oats
Rice
Sorghum
Soybeans
Wheat

Plus crops such as canola, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame and sunflower, among others.

A Bridge to 2026

$12B Farm Aid Package Leaves Out Specialty Crops

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:40:04 GMT

The USDA announced Monday that it will make $12 billion available in one-time bridge payments to American farmers in response to “temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs.”

Of the $12 billion provided, up to $11 billion will be used for the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, which provides broad relief to U.S. row crop farmers, according to a news release.

USDA says the remaining $1 billion of the $12 billion in bridge payments will be reserved for commodities not covered in the FBA Program, “such as specialty crops and sugar, for example, though details including timelines for those payments are still under development and require additional understanding of market impacts and economic needs.”

In response, the co-chairs of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance issued the following statement:

“We are disappointed that specialty crop growers were not included in today’s announcement. As we wrote to the President on October 6, 2025 , family farms that produce safe and nutritious fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts, as well as cultivate the trees, flowers, and plants that play a vital role in the nation’s health and wellbeing, continue to face unprecedented economic challenges.

“We stand ready to work with the administration and Congress to advance a meaningful assistance package to support specialty crop growers during this difficult period.”

A national coalition of more than 150 organizations representing growers of fruits, vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, nursery plants and other products, the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance was established to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crop agriculture and improve the health of Americans by broadening the scope of U.S. agricultural public policy.

The SCFBA is co-chaired by Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association; Mike Joyner, president of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association; Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers; and Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council.

Christmas Comes Early: Trump Administration Announces $12 Billion in Bridge Payments for Farmers

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:35:23 GMT

Help is on the way for farmers impacted by the Trump administration’s trade policies. The White House released some details of its long-anticipated trade aid package, totaling $12 billion .

Up to $11 billion will go toward a newly designed “Farmer Bridge Assistance” program targeted toward row crop farmers hit hardest by trade disruptions. Those payments will be sent by the end of February, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. The remaining $1 billion will be set aside and is designated for other crops affected by the ongoing disputes.

President Donald Trump announced the package Monday, joined by Rollins, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and several growers. Trump said during the roundtable that tariffs will be used to fund the payments, while a release from USDA says the bulk of the funding will run through a new Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and funded under the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).

Rollins framed the package as near-term help while trade and farm-safety-net updates ramp up. She made comments during the roundtable on Monday, surrounded by farmers.

“President Trump will not let our farmers be left behind, so he directed our team to build a bridge program to see quick relief while the president’s dozens of new trade deals and new market access take effect,” Rollins says. “The plan we are announcing today ensures American farmers can continue to plan for the next crop year … it will allow farmers to leverage strengthened price protection risk management tools and the reliability of fair trade deals so they do not have to depend on large ad hoc assistance packages from the government.”

FARMER VERY GRATEFUL TO @POTUS: "YOU BROUGHT CHRISTMAS TO FARMERS"

Cordt Holub, Corn and Soybean Farmer from Iowa: What you're doing here in D.C. is working... I'll be able to potentially pass on a farm to my children because of you. pic.twitter.com/E3vq6jsTMM
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) December 8, 2025

When Are Farmer Assistance Payments Expected?

Based on information released from USDA on Monday, the timing of the payments are as follows:

Dec. 19, 2025 (5 p.m. ET): Deadline for producers to make sure 2025 acreage reporting is accurate.
End of December 2025: USDA expects to release commodity-specific payment rates.
By Feb. 28, 2026: USDA says eligible FBA payments should be released.
Oct. 1, 2026: USDA points to farm bill-related improvements in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), including higher statutory reference prices for major commodities, reaching eligible farmers starting on this date.

What Farmers Need to Know

Here’s how the new tariff-funded aid package breaks down and what producers can expect it to mean for their operations.

$12 billion total in one-time assistance tied to 2025 conditions, framed as a short-term bridge while new trade access and longer-term safety net changes take effect.
Up to $11 billion is slated for the FBA Program focused on row crops, using a “simple, proportional” national formula intended to cover a portion of modeled 2025 crop-year losses.
$1 billion is reserved for commodities not covered by FBA, including items such as specialty crops and sugar, but USDA says details and timelines are still being developed.
No crop insurance link required to receive FBA payments, though USDA is urging producers to use OBBBA risk management tools going forward.

Which Crops Are Covered Under the New FBA?

USDA says FBA applies to producers of a broad list of row crops and oilseeds, including:

Barley
Corn
Cotton
Peanuts
Oats
Rice
Sorghum
Soybeans
Wheat
Plus crops such as canola, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame and sunflower, among others.

Is $12 Billion Enough?

The administration had been expected to roll out as much as $15 billion in aid back in October, but Rollins said the 43-day federal government shutdown pushed back the timeline.

During his first term, Trump directed about $23 billion in aid to farmers. Reuters reports producers this year were already on track to receive nearly $40 billion in ad-hoc disaster and economic assistance.

The new trade aid package is widely welcomed, but many U.S. farmers say the damage from the trade war, and China’s boycott of U.S. soybeans through harvest, has already taken its toll. Billions of dollars in lost soybean sales pushed China toward South American suppliers, creating long-term financial and market consequences.

While USDA finally unveiled its long-needed trade aid package, delayed by the 43-day government shutdown, many question whether it’s sufficient. Ed Elfman, senior vice president of agriculture and rural banking policy at the American Bankers Association, says the support will help but won’t fix structural issues.

“Any aid will help,” Elfman says. “It’ll help make cash flow work a little better. It’ll make the margins look a little better. Profitability will go up, but at the end of the day, it’s just a Band-Aid. It’s not a long-term solution.”

For some farmers already in financial distress, the relief comes too late.

“A financial bridge is vital for keeping many of our farmers in business going into 2026,” says Caleb Ragland, president, American Soybean Association. “There are some deep losses that have been incurred, and it’s been piling up over a two- or three-year period.”

Northwest Corn Belt Saw Wide Basis

In the northwest Corn Belt, the trade truce and renewed Chinese soybean purchases were too late to prevent wide basis levels and a storage crunch during harvest.

“A lot of producers were forced to sell that crop early, maybe earlier than what they wanted to,” says Kevin Deinert, president, South Dakota Soybean Association. “Given that we had some very depressed prices at that beginning October time frame before any trade deals were announced, some farmers are still reeling from that.”

Elfman says the financial strain is uneven across the country.

“One thing we’re learning from bankers, it’s creeping into the upper Midwest. The ‘I states’ are starting to feel it more and more, but really the mid-South to the South has been feeling it for three or four years now,” Elfman notes.

And while the aid helps slow the losses, he warns it doesn’t erase them.

“We are seeing with our surveys when we talk to bankers right now that they believe 50% of their producers will not be profitable next year,” Elfman says.

Ragland adds that soybean producers appreciate the lifeline but ultimately want reliable markets.

“We do not want to be dependent on the next aid program or financial bridge to stay in business,” he notes. “We need opportunities within the market.”

Meanwhile, trade negotiations with China continue. China’s Vice Premier held a video call Friday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Reports say both sides engaged in an in-depth and constructive exchange on implementing the consensus reached in an October meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi.

Under that agreement, the U.S. committed to trimming tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on illicit fentanyl trafficking, resuming U.S. soybean purchases and maintaining rare earth exports.

Senators React, Thank Trump For Having Farmers’ Backs

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., praised the White House’s newly announced farm assistance package, calling it a bridge to help producers until the benefits of recent trade deals and the “One Big Beautiful Bill” show up in farm country.

In a statement, Boozman said farm families share Trump’s goal of expanding market access and that delivering the assistance will bridge the gap until farmers see gains from the new trade agreements and added certainty from the legislation. He added the announcement provides “much needed relief to rural America” and said the Senate Agriculture Committee is prepared to pursue additional steps to support farm families.

Boozman attended the White House roundtable for the announcement alongside Trump, Rollins, Bessent and farmers from across the country.

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was also in attendance on Monday. She praised the USDA farm assistance package announced by Trump during a White House agriculture roundtable on Monday.

“Today’s farm assistance package is welcome news as we work to get the farm economy back on track,” Fischer said. She credited Trump and Rollins for stepping up to support producers and said she looks forward to working with the administration to expand trade opportunities and strengthen markets for Nebraska agricultural products.

A Conversation With Ag Secretary Rollins on Labor, Disease and MAHA

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 19:38:42 GMT

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins stuck to streamlining the federal government labor rules to alleviate dairy’s worker crisis and said more aggressive measures are coming to prevent and contain disease, in an interview with Dairy Herd Management. Rollins this week was at the joint annual meeting hosted by National Milk Producers Federation, the United Dairy Board and the United Dairy Industry Association in Arlington, Texas.

While there, she said the H-2A visa program is particularly broken for dairy, which requires year-round support instead of seasonal workers. She also said measures, such as mandatory testing for lactating dairy cattle prior to interstate movement, are not aggressive enough to address modern biosecurity threats.

Below is a summary of Dairy Herd’s 20-minute conversation with Rollins, who discussed labor, disease prevention as well as her feelings on the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

What Federal Efforts Are in the Works to Ensure Adequate Labor for U.S. Dairies?

One of the central concerns among dairy producers, and the entire industry, is comprehensive immigration reform. To put it in perspective, more than two-thirds of today’s 9.36 million dairy cows are milked by immigrant laborers in the U.S., according to the National Milk Producers Federation.

Currently, the H-2A visa applies strictly to seasonal or temporary labor. Dairy operations, however, require consistent, skilled workers every day of the year. Milking and caring for cows, managing processing facilities and ensuring food safety are daily tasks that don’t pause between seasons. This mismatch leaves dairy farmers and processors nationwide without a legal means to fulfill their guestworker needs.

In addition to the need for year-round help, Secretary Rollins notes farmers must interact with three different federal agencies to use the H-2A program. Moreover, the costs associated with securing labor have significantly increased, with reports from farmers in south Texas indicating average hourly costs, including transportation and housing, reaching $30 to $35 per hour. Comparatively, similar labor across the border is $2 per hour, Rollins says, illustrating a system that is both unsustainable and inherently unfair.

Ideally, any H-2A program changes will reduce costs and red tape, but comprehensive solutions ultimately require congressional action.

In addition to visa programs, Secretary Rollins says the current administration remains focused on sealing borders and mass deportations.

“Everyone understands the dynamics of an open border, and the millions and millions, we’re unable to count how many, that crossed during the last administration. The President’s No. 1 promise as a candidate in 2022 through 2024 was sealing the border and mass deportations,” she says. “Looking at this challenge through the lens of understanding labor is absolute when we can’t feed ourselves, combined with where we are in terms of immigration, those are the nuances.”

How is the Administration Addressing Threats to Animal Ag?
On day 1, after being sworn in as Secretary of Ag, Rollins was briefed on HPAI . She made it clear that while some measures, such as mandatory testing for lactating dairy cattle prior to interstate movement , had been enacted, a broader and more aggressive approach is necessary. Recognizing that maintaining the status quo was insufficient, a comprehensive strategy was essential — not just from USDA but across the entire federal government.

“I realize there are lots of opinions on my boss, President Trump, but I think the one thing that most people would agree on is that he leaves it all in the field. And, that we have to do everything we can for this moment that we were given to fix a very broken system, whatever that system may look like, in this case, which is animal disease,” Rollins says.

In February 2025, the Trump administration set forth a five-point plan to combat HPAI . Rollins notes the dairy sector, in particular, showcased remarkable adaptability to HPAI threats, demonstrating industry resilience and proactive measures.

Significant investments, such as a $100 million innovation grant , have been allocated to explore vaccines and therapeutic solutions. However, the complexities of viral mutations necessitate caution, especially regarding vaccination strategies, to prevent potentially more dangerous strains from emerging.

“I think we’re going to make more progress than perhaps has been made. Having said that, it’s a virus and the virus always wins,” she says, noting they are worried about New World screwworm and took aggressive actions to combat that by closing several ports.

“We’ve not imported new animals, which is one of the reasons beef prices are up, but we are looking now to figure out how to start reopening ports. I think we’ve gotten our arms around exactly what the problem is,” she says. “We’re building out new sterile fly facilities, which is the only way we eradicated it 30 to 40 years ago, but we have a really good system in place.”

Rollins shares collaborations with international counterparts are stronger, creating an unprecedented partnership with Mexican authorities to manage and preempt future animal agriculture outbreaks effectively. Enhanced border protocols, including disinfection and ivermectin treatments for imports, underscore a commitment to protecting livestock health.

“I feel confident that we are aggressively attacking all pieces of NWS,” she says.

What Does the MAHA Movement’s Mean for Dairy?
The “Make America Healthy Again” movement aims to revamp the nation’s food system, and Rollins offers reassurance dairy products at the forefront.

“Health care costs too much. We’re not getting the care we need, especially to vulnerable populations. How do we fix that?” she asks. “Over the last year, it is completely flipped to, what are Americans eating? What are we serving in our schools? What are we serving in our SNAP program, which 42 million Americans are on the food stamp program.”

While the current economic situation is troubling, Rollins is confident in the long-term potential for profitability and sustainability in the dairy industry.

“What milk, cheese and other dairy products mean as we completely and fundamentally shift our entire food system is our dairy industry is at the very front tip of the spear,” she says, noting the response markets are answering and the dairy industry, too, with the $11 billion in new processing plants, U.S. dairy is riding a wave of momentum that is fueled by consumer demand.

“In the long term, I’m not sure there is an agriculture industry that has more to gain and that will see more of a pivot toward real profitability and real sustainability than this [dairy] industry. I could not be more excited to help lead on that,” she says.

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Kennedy Says U.S. to Announce New Dietary Guidelines in December

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 19:20:05 GMT

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will release new dietary guidelines in December aimed at reducing high rates of obesity and changing the country’s food culture, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday, Nov. 6.

“We’re about to release dietary guidelines that are going to change the food culture in this country,” Kennedy told reporters during an event in the Oval Office, where Trump announced a deal with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to cut the price of weight loss drugs. “We’re releasing those in December.”

Kennedy says the new guidelines would change the kind of food served to military service members and children in schools, but gave no details on the new recommendations.

“If we want to solve the chronic disease crisis, we have to tackle obesity,” Kennedy says. “Obesity is the No. 1 driver of chronic disease.”

Fifty percent of the adult U.S. population is obese or overweight, Kennedy says, adding that it’s driving costs up for diabetes care and cardiac diseases.

The updated U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which influence school lunches, medical advice and nutrition standards, have been anticipated since summer. The new guidelines are expected to address saturated fat, found mainly in meat and certain oils, and ultra-processed food, along with modified suggestions related to dairy consumption, sources familiar with the process told Reuters in June.

The Department of Health and Human Services and USDA publish the guidelines jointly every five years.

The current dietary guidelines recommend limiting saturated fat to less than 10% of total calories consumed daily, and do not address ultra-processed food. The definition of ultra-processed food is hotly debated by the food industry, while the report describes it as industrially manufactured products.

The guidelines recommend limiting consumption of alcoholic beverages to one drink a day for women and two for men, or not drinking.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Has Government Shutdown Stalled Farm Financial Aid Package?

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 23:33:05 GMT

While U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week details of potential new federal support for farmers could be released as soon as Tuesday, the announcement didn’t materialize. Furthermore, no announcement is expected this week, according to some media reports.

“The Trump administration has pushed back its plans to roll out economic aid for farmers this week due to the government shutdown,” said an article published Tuesday afternoon by Politico .

The article said the “Office of Management and Budget has readied between $12 billion and $13 billion to be allocated from an internal USDA account,” but no final decision has been made on how much or when the money would go to farm aid.

“If this is a temporary shutdown, you know, if we’re talking another week or two, it’s probably not going to affect too much more in that length of time,” CPA Paul Neiffer ventured during a conversation with Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk.

Still, Neiffer noted farmers are being impacted by delayed and/or canceled payments. He cited ARC and PLC payments farmers have anticipated for the 2024 crop. The funds were supposed to be distributed on Oct. 1 but got postponed.

“That certainly doesn’t help farmers from a cash flow standpoint,” he said. Get the complete discussion on AgriTalk:

Neiffer added that farmers also need to know there is another type of cost to ARC and PLC payments — they are subject to the 5.7% sequestration adjustment.

“If farmers were counting on, let’s say $50 an acre, maybe they’re going to get $47 an acre. So that is something that’s going to affect them,” he said.

As for when the government shutdown might end, Neiffer referenced Washington Policy Analyst Jim Wiesemeyer, who reported the closure might conclude by Friday, Oct. 17.

“Of course, we are dealing with Congress, so let’s don’t use logic,” Neiffer said. “If they can come to a deal on the extension of the Obamacare premium subsidies, I think that’s fairly easy. If the Democrats are going to dig in on Medicaid and some of that other stuff, then, yeah, this could go on quite a while.”

Various Programs And Reports Are Suspended
It’s estimated about 42,000 USDA workers are being furloughed during the shutdown.

“Local FSA offices have mostly closed. It’s about 67% of USDA staff who work in those offices and deal with all the different programs that FSA administers,” Callie Eideberg, policy expert with the Vogel Group, told AgDay TV’s Clinton Griffiths.

“Folks…are waiting for this government to reopen so farmers can continue to engage with these programs and get the money that they so desperately need,” Eideberg said.

Neiffer cited the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the second stage of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) as two of the numerous financial programs on hold.

Also in jeopardy of being delayed or cancelled is the October WASDE, scheduled for release this Thursday.

Payment Wheels Likely To Turn Slowly
Even if the financial aid package is announced this week, Neiffer said farmers are unlikely to see any money until December at the earliest, and January 2025 is more likely.

“I think what we have to remember when the ECAP program (Economic Assistance Payment)
was announced in December, it had 90 days to get done, and they took the full 90 days to get it done,” he said.

During their conversation, Flory asked Neiffer whether the timing is right for the aid package.

“I’m starting to get a little concerned,” Neiffer acknowledged. “You know, there are other industries out there that are likely to soon say, ‘Hey, what about us?’”

Another concern Neiffer voiced was whether an aid package is artificially keeping cash rent prices at higher levels.

“You talk to landlords and they could say, ‘Hey, these farmers are getting an extra $50 or $100 per acre. I want a third of that or 40% of it, because I’m the cash rent landlord.’ So, yeah, I do have a concern. The aid is needed, but at what point do we get the law of diminishing returns, and it’s too much? We might be approaching that.”

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California's Water Crisis: Farmers Warn Water Rules Could Cripple Central Valley Agriculture

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 10:52:47 GMT

On Hansen Ranch in the Central Valley, fifth-generation farmer Erik Hansen grows a little bit of everything — pistachios, almonds, pomegranates, alfalfa, corn for silage and cotton.

“We farm 15, 16 different crops,” Hansen says. “Cotton is our biggest acreage crop, and that’s in the form of Pima cotton.”

That diversification has long been the Hansen family’s survival strategy. But in spring 2023, no amount of crop rotation could shield them from disaster.

“Where we’re standing right now was underwater,” Hansen recalls. “A mile from here, over by that PG&E substation, was the edge of the lake.”

The flood wiped out 600 acres of pomegranates and 400 acres of pistachios. One thousand acres of permanent crops gone in one season.

“It was a massive hit,” Hansen says. “We had about 5,000 to 6,000 acres under water. Some of that water lasted for over a year.”

From Too Much Water to Not Enough

The irony is hard to ignore: In 2023, floodwaters destroyed thousands of acres. Now, Hansen says it’s the lack of access to water that could cripple farms across the Central Valley.

“The last projections I heard were anywhere from 1 million to 1.2 million acres totaled in the valley,” he says, referring to farmland that could be idled by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) .

Passed in 2014, SGMA requires local agencies to reduce groundwater overdraft and achieve sustainable use by 2040. On paper, Hansen says, that makes sense.

“To some extent it is good because you have to have a way to manage the overdraft,” he explains. “The problem is there are surface water facilities we developed back in the 50s and 60s that we’re just not using. A lot of that water is going out to the Pacific Ocean.”

For Hansen, the politics sting. He believes decades of state decisions — prioritizing fish and wildlife, reallocating water, and neglecting infrastructure — set up today’s crisis.

“I’m frustrated because the families that have been farming here for years, some decades, sometimes even more, are being footed with a bill for problems that somebody else created,” Hansen says. “If the state doesn’t look in the mirror, I think we’re going to find ourselves in the same position again.”

Young Farmers Face the Same Struggles

Forty miles south, 30-year-old Elizabeth Keenan is navigating the same regulatory headwinds. Her grandfather Charlie started Keenan Farms in 1972, acquiring one of California’s first pistachio orchards. Today, Elizabeth farms alongside her parents and brother.

“Rolling with the regulatory punches can be complicated,” she admits. “Despite pistachios being such a high-value product, despite having optimal land and weather conditions, we really have everything set up beautifully — except for legislation.”

Water, she says, is the most difficult hurdle.

“We’re up to a 50% allocation,” Keenan explains. “The base allocation is 2.2 acre-feet, so we get 1.1 acre-feet to use. Otherwise, we have to have open fallow fields. To pump more water, we have to buy it on the open market, and that’s expensive too.”

A Political Battle Over Flows

Signs line highways across the Central Valley warning that 80% of California’s river water flows out to the Pacific instead of farms. Assemblyman David Tangipa, a freshman lawmaker representing the 8^th District, says those numbers are real.

“It’s 100% happening,” Tangipa says. “Almost 83% of all water in the state is automatically pushed out for environmental purposes.”

California averages about 200 million acre-feet of water each year, Tangipa notes, but despite record rainfall, farms often get less than half of their allocations.

“We’ve prioritized so much environmental legislation that more than 80% of our water is pushed out immediately to the ocean, unnaturally,” he says. “Meanwhile, farmers get less water and more land goes out of production.”

Proponents of Current Water Flows

There are proponents of the current way the water flows, mainly for environmental reasons and to prevent saltwater contamination of freshwater sources.

California releases water into the ocean to prevent saltwater intrusion into freshwater supplies, protect endangered aquatic species and ecosystems, and maintain the delicate balance of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary, a critical source of drinking and irrigation water.

A portion of released water is also used for stormwater management to prevent flooding, as it can be difficult and impractical to capture and store all of it.

And those in favor of environmental water releases say it’s essential to support broader ecosystem benefits like water filtration and carbon sequestration, which are important for overall environmental health.

The Ripple Effect

The Central Valley of California is a powerhouse in food production for the U.S. That area alone produces approximately half of all the fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S., as well as a large portion of the nation’s nuts and other foods. When you break down the numbers, the Central Valley accounts for about 60% of the nation’s fruits and nuts, and about 30% of the nation’s vegetables.

For Thomas Putzel, who works with farmers across the Central Valley, the impact of regulations isn’t just measured in acre-feet. It’s measured in livelihoods and the food supply.

“The environmentalists try to say farmers are wasting water,” he says. “But when we look at what farmers provide, we’re planting forests. One acre of almonds will capture 18 metric tons of carbon a year. That’s like taking 29 million cars off the road.”

Putzel says California voters already approved a water bond to build new storage a decade ago, but no new projects have been built.

“Not one shovel has gone in the ground in 10 years,” he says. “Actually, they took some of that money and tore dams down.”

Meanwhile, permanent crops wither when water isn’t available, leaving behind dead orchards that invite pests and rodents into neighboring fields.

“SGMA’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Putzel says. “But you’ve asked growers to run a marathon with their legs tied together. People don’t understand; food doesn’t come from a grocery store. It comes from a farmer. If California stopped shipping produce for one week, our stores would be empty.”

“Is Farming in California’s Best Interest?”

For Erik Hansen, the question is bigger than water allocations or acreage lost.

“Government is probably the biggest problem right now,” he says. “It just seems California hasn’t really decided whether farming is in their best interest. Politicians like to say they’re for small business and small farming, but virtually every piece of legislation makes it more difficult to survive.”

As the Central Valley wrestles with the challenges of floods, drought and regulations, one reality is clear: The fate of these farms is tied not just to weather and soil but to political decisions that could shape the future of food in America.

US Justice Department to Examine Rising Cost of Farm Inputs, Says Farm Secretary

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 16:08:35 GMT

The U.S. Department of Justice antitrust division will work with the Department of Agriculture to look closely at the rising cost of agricultural inputs like fertilizer and seeds under a memorandum of understanding signed on Thursday, said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

The goal of the joint effort is to “protect American farmers and ranchers from the burdens imposed by high and volatile input costs, such as feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment and other essential goods,” Rollins said at the Ag Outlook Forum in Kansas City, Missouri.

The DOJ will scrutinize competitive conditions in the agricultural marketplace, including antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition, Rollins said.

Rollins previously said the USDA is examining high fertilizer costs and exploring options for farmer relief. The U.S. farm economy is saddled this year with low crop prices and trade disputes.

(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul and Nia Williams)

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The Consumer Paradox

Global Competition and Currency

Wholesale Disconnect

Capital Strategy and Survival

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