USDA launches National Farm Security Action Plan
On July 8, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the National Farm Security Action Plan, which establishes American agriculture as national security and aims to safeguard the industry from foreign threats, biosecurity risks, cyberattacks and vulnerabilities in ag research and infrastructure.
In a symbolic moment on the steps of the Jamie Whitten U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Building, Rollins was joined by top officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to underscore interagency collaboration behind the initiative.
“We feed the world, we lead the world and we’ll never let foreign adversaries control our land, our labs or our livelihoods,” Rollins states. “This action plan puts America’s farmers, families and future first – exactly where they belong. Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, American agriculture will be strong, secure and resilient. He will never stop fighting for our farmers and ranchers.”
Seven-part plan
A component of the Trump administration’s Make Agriculture Great Again initiative, the National Farm Security Action Plan intends to take aggressive action across seven critical areas.
First, the plan looks to secure American farmland by banning new land purchases from countries of concern, such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea; employing presidential authority to reclaim land already owned by these nations and reforming the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act to increase transparency and raise penalties.
The second component of the plan looks to boost supply chain resilience by pinpointing critical farm inputs and materials, conducting vulnerability crisis simulations and upgrading pathogen import controls to prevent dangerous biochemicals and biological agents from entering the U.S.
The plan also aims to protect safety net programs by cracking down on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program fraud, especially by foreign adversaries, as well as prioritizing U.S. producers when it comes to providing loans, grants and other food safety contracts housed under USDA’s aid programs.
Additionally, USDA hopes to defend ag research and innovation by shielding intellectual property, halting partnerships with adversary-linked entities and pioneering collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on domestic ag technology.
The last two aspects of the plan include safeguarding plant and animal health by strengthening biosecurity measures to defend against agro-terrorism and foreign disease treats and protecting critical infrastructure by treating farms, processing plants and supply chains as vital national assets and bolstering cybersecurity protections for agriculture.
Widespread support
USDA’s action plan quickly garnered widespread support, especially from agricultural groups across the nation.
In fact, just one day after Rollins’ announcement, representatives of cattle industry organizations from 28 states, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the American Farm Bureau Federation issued statements of support.
NCBA President and Nebraska Cattleman Buck Wehrbein comments, “America is blessed to have hundreds of thousands of family farms and ranches producing beef right here at home. NCBA strongly agrees with Rollins that farm security is national security. We are pleased USDA is protecting our family farms and ranches, scrutinizing foreign acquisitions to ensure they don’t threaten American agriculture, protecting U.S. agricultural research from foreign adversaries and bolstering animal health programs to prevent a foreign animal disease outbreak. Rollins and President Trump are true friends of American agriculture.”
Additionally, Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna states, “In Wyoming where energy production is so critical, we are accustomed to what we do being important for the security of this nation. We appreciate the recognition agriculture – an equally important industry in Wyoming – also contributes to national security. Every day, our producers pursue their work with the understanding it’s more than a job, it’s about raising safe and healthy food critical to our nation’s security.”
Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
