Gov. Sanders joins USDA Secretary to push farm security plan
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U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins signs food choice waivers in June, an event attended by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Framing food as a matter of national security, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and others in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to announce a new plan — part of a broader geopolitical Trump-era push.
The big picture: The National Farm Security Action Plan, touted as a part of the "Make Agriculture Great Again" initiative, would block farmland sales to "Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries," crack down on agro-terrorism, and prioritize U.S. producers in federal loan and food safety programs, Rollins said.
- More industry innovations to increase productivity are called for, while protecting the country's agricultural intellectual property.
- It paves the way for Rollins' department to work with the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, the U.S. attorney general, Congress and others with an America-first agenda.
What they said: "American agriculture is not just about feeding our families, but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us," Rollins said at the announcement.
- "A country has to be able to feed itself, fuel itself, and fight for itself to truly be free," Sanders said at the event.
Flashback: Arkansas was the first state to enforce a law targeting land ownership by foreign adversaries. In 2023, Attorney General Tim Griffin said he would require a Chinese state-owned company to sell 160 acres.
- State lawmakers this year amended a law to, in some circumstances, prevent a foreign party-controlled businesses from leasing land or holding an interest in property near essential infrastructure.
"This action plan puts America's farmers, families and future first — exactly where they belong," Rollins stated in the USDA's news release.
The other side: Some U.S. farmers disagree with the White House's approach to agriculture so far. The New York Times this week reported that one silo operation is trying to sell a glut of Kansas grain as dog food due to cutbacks on foreign aid programs that served as a market for decades.
- Wheat prices are down $1.50 per bushel since February, below the price farmers need to break even. "I would lay a huge amount of that right at the feet of Donald J. Trump," Kansas wheat farmer Vance Ehmke told the Times.