Agriculture & Food Policy

The Daily Signal provides agriculture and food policy news with reporting, analysis, and conservative commentary on the Farm Bill, USDA actions, farmland, agricultural trade, subsidies, regulation, and policies affecting American farmers and food producers.
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  • news

    Zach Lahn’s Plan to Help Farmers While Cleaning Up Iowa’s Water
    Zach Lahn was told he couldn’t win in politics by talking about Iowa’s water quality and the cancer crisis. Now, as the Republican nominee for governor, he is looking to restore the culture in Iowa by running for office on precisely those issues. Lahn sat down with the Daily Signal for an interview on Tuesday…
    Virginia Grace McKinnon
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  • exclusive

    EXCLUSIVE: Trump USDA Faces Calls to Exit Climate Initiative Critics Call ‘Private Regulation’
    FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL—The Trump administration’s Agriculture Department remains publicly listed as a participant in a Biden-era climate initiative that critics say could drive up costs for American dairy farmers, accelerate consolidation in the industry, and ultimately make milk and other food staples less affordable for consumers. The initiative, Pathways to Dairy Net Zero, was…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Virginia Farmers Struggle Amid Drought
    The state’s Drought Monitoring Task Force lifted its advisory for most of Southwest Virginia, including Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, and Wise counties, as well as the cities of Bristol and Norton. It’s the first time since April 16 that any portion of the Commonwealth has been listed as having a “normal”…
    Rich Tucker
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  • opinion

    Trump, John Deere, and Farmers’ Right to Repair Success Story
    Nothing makes a farmer’s blood boil faster than watching a six-figure combine sit dead in the field during harvest because of a repair he knows he can make himself. Trust me—as a farmer, I know from experience. For too long, too many big companies have treated repairs like another way to squeeze farmers. They have…
    Martha Boneta Fain
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  • news

    America Is ‘LOSING the Ability to Feed Itself’: Senator Proposes Tariff Bill to Save US Agriculture
    Amid domestic economic struggles, Sen. Bill Cassidy announced Thursday that he will introduce a bill to raise tariff quotas on food and agricultural products. The Louisiana Republican’s Home Market Restoration Act of 2026 would raise tariff rates to protect products from his home state such as shrimp, rice, honey, and beef—tariff rates that Congress has…
    Joseph Buff
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  • news

    Farm Bill Clears House as Congress Sides With MAHA
    Congress secured major wins for the Make America Healthy Again movement, including striking pesticide liability shields and passing the 2026 Farm Bill. States’ and families’ rights are protected, and pesticide companies can continue to be held liable for poisoning Americans. The Farm Bill passed the House on Thursday by a vote of 224-200. Rep. Anna…
    Virginia Grace McKinnon
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  • news

    Why States Warn Continued UN Funding Hurts Farmers
    Eleven state agriculture commissioners called on the Trump administration and Congress to yank funding from United Nations programs that they say are hurting American farmers.  “The federal government should stop using American taxpayer dollars to fund the United Nations International Maritime Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the United Nations…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    $5 Million on Trees, $300K to Trans Farmers: Brooke Rollins Shares Woke Agriculture Department Spending Cuts
    The Department of Agriculture has worked with the Department of Government Efficiency to slash millions in woke spending projects, from a $300,000 contract educating queer and transgender farmers to $5 million to keep trees alive. “Probably the most stunning for me was the $500,000 grant to study transgenderism in mice,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    As Deals Advance, Farmers May Not Need Tariff Bailouts, Agriculture Secretary Hopes
    As deals advance with foreign countries, farmers may not need bailouts from tariffs, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told The Daily Signal. Rollins hopes deals will be “struck pretty quickly” with foreign countries facing Trump administration tariffs so bailouts to farmers will be unnecessary.  “The economy has already begun to realign around putting America first,…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    Wisconsin Farmer Again Challenges USDA Program Rules as Discriminatory
    THE CENTER SQUARE—The U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to discriminate in many of its programs, according to a new letter from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty wrote the letter telling the USDA that it will file a lawsuit if the issue is not corrected within 60 days. Wisconsin Institute…
    Jon Styf
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  • opinion

    Farmers, Not Bureaucrats, Deserve Control of California’s Water: A Farmer’s Call for Stability
    Farmers are at the heart of California’s water wars, but you wouldn’t know it from reading The New York Times. A recent feature on the removal of dams from the Klamath River highlighted environmental and tribal perspectives—yet it failed to incorporate the perspective of farmers like me who are directly affected by these decisions. This…
    Rodney Cheyne
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