Draft of White House Report Suggests Kennedy Won’t Push Strict Pesticide Regulations

(8/14/25) A White House report on the health of American children would stop short of proposing direct restrictions on ultraprocessed foods and pesticides that the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called major threats, according to a leaked draft of the document that was reviewed by The New York Times. The report is officially scheduled to be released in September. Highlights:

• The report, if adopted as is, would be good news for sectors of the food and agriculture industries that feared far more restrictive proposals than the ones outlined in the draft. Through his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement, Kennedy has sought to overhaul the nation’s diet by pushing those industries to make major changes.
• Questions about a possible push for new pesticide regulations were raised in May when the White House released an initial report, from a presidential commission chaired by Kennedy, that raised strong concerns about possible links between pesticides and childhood diseases. It also linked the dominance of ultraprocessed foods in children’s diets to a range of chronic diseases.
• After the first report was published in May, commodity groups, including the American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and the Corn Refiners Association, raised concerns with the Trump administration as the commission prepared its follow-up report outlining a strategy.
• The draft report does describe prioritizing “whole, healthy” foods in federal programs like those providing meals to schools. It also has a section dedicated to “Soil Health and Stewardship of the Land.” However, the Trump administration’s USDA has canceled $1 billion in funds meant to support the purchase of locally produced foods for schools and food banks, and more than 2,400 employees have left the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) so far in 2025; the NRCS is the main agency in charge of helping farmers implement soil health practices.

LSP recently published a report on work we and our allies are doing to increase connections between local farmers and schools in west-central Minnesota. Check it out here.

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Should Regenerative Farmers Pin Hopes on RFK Jr.’s MAHA?

(8/19/25) As the public awaits the official release of the second MAHA Commission report (see above) sometime in September, there is a divide that exists among farmers who typically agree on things like increasing organic matter, reducing pesticide use, and diversifying crops, according to interviews conducted by Civil Eats. Highlights:

• While the Biden administration made some of the largest investments in history in paying farmers to implement conservation practices, rebuilding regional meat processing infrastructure, and shoring up the local supply chains that small, regenerative farms sell into, it also maintained the overall status quo and didn’t talk about transformation of the food and farm system as loudly or as often as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. does.
• Some farmers are thrilled to hear the health secretary using the word “regenerative” in the halls of power and calling out corporate influence on the food system, and are optimistic that real change is coming. Others question whether Kennedy will walk the walk, given his place in the Trump administration, which has been rolling back environmental protections, supporting increased taxpayer funding for chemical-dependent, commodity agriculture, and cutting support for the small, regenerative farms that the MAHA movement claims to support. There are also concerns the administration’s aggressive pushback on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives is hurting the young farmers who disproportionately run regenerative farms.
• “It’s interesting to see that the USDA is cutting funding for programs like [Local Food Purchase Assistance] while they’re increasing payments for commodity crop production, and of course all that commodity crop production is based on the use of glyphosate,” said Steven Beltram, a North Carolina farmer, referencing the $67 billion bump that commodity growers got in the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill. “It really feels like a divided administration. The USDA is for the most part implementing practices that are the exact opposite of the goals of the MAHA movement.”

What are your thoughts on the MAHA movement and its potential impact on our farm and food system? Drop us a line at bdevore@landstewardshipproject.org.

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Corn Futures Plunge after USDA Forecasts Massive Crop

(8/12/25) Farm Futures reports that U.S. farmers are poised to reap their biggest corn harvest ever thanks to a sharp increase in planted acreage and favorable growing conditions in much of the Midwest over the spring and summer. Highlights: 

• Corn futures plunged to contract lows below $4 per bushel after USDA hiked its U.S. yield estimate to an all-time high at 188.8 bushels per acre and forecast a record overall crop at 16.74 billion bushels.
• Corn plantings were substantially higher than USDA projected earlier this year. USDA hiked its corn plantings estimate 2.2% to 97.254 million acres, up 7.4% from 2024 and the highest since 2012. The USDA’s estimate was up 4.3% from the agency’s previous forecast and blew past analysts’ expectations.
• Illinois FarmDocDaily has calculated that for corn farmers in that state, in 2025 break-even prices to cover all costs, including cash rent for farmland, range from $4.60 to $4.66 per bushel.

Looking to diversify your farming operation? A recent Land Stewardship Letter article describes how one farm is integrating crops and livestock. You can subscribe to the Soil Builders’ Network e-letter here.

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Midwest Oat Growers Want a Renaissance, but it will be Hard Without Big Ag

(8/26/25) In May, Landon Plagge and other oat farmers in Iowa and Minnesota loaded 100,000 bushels of their oats into a rail car bound for the Quaker Oats processing plant in Cedar Rapids. Three months later, they’re still waiting to hear what the grain giant thought of the domestic product. Having companies like Quaker source more of their oats from area farmers could produce significant economic and environmental benefits, reports Investigate Midwest. Highlights:

• Iowans harvested more than 6 million acres of oats annually until the 1950s. In 2022, harvested oat acres in Iowa totaled 40,000 acres. Consumer demand for oat products has been increasing in recent years; oats harvested to feed animals and humans increased 12.6% in Iowa between 2017 and 2022.
• Martin Larsen, a southeastern Minnesota crop farmer, said integrating oats into a corn-soybean rotation can reduce fertilizer costs while cutting nitrate pollution in groundwater. Tests of groundwater under Larsen’s oat acres show up to 60% less nitrate pollution than under corn acres.
• Plagge has recruited about 70 farmers, mostly from Iowa and Minnesota, to invest in Green Acres Milling, a $55 million oat-processing plant in Albert Lea, Minnesota. The plant, scheduled to open next year, eventually will process 3 million bushels of oats a year. This equates to about 60,000 acres of oats within three years, Plagge said.

LSP has held two meetings in Minnesota this year on how to integrate small grains like oats into a cropping operation. A summary of the Albert Lea meeting is here; information on the Madison meeting is here. You can listen to an LSP Ear to the Ground podcast with Landon Plagge here. Martin Larsen described the economic and ecological benefits of integrating oats into his operation in Episode 260 of Ear to the Ground. Farmer and LSP soil health organizer Shea-Lynn Ramthun writes about her own experience raising oats here. 

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Regenerative agriculture: Its Meaning, Rationale, Prospective Benefits and Relation to Policy

(8/21/25) The journal CABI Agriculture and Bioscience has published a paper that highlights the emergence and scientific basis of regenerative agriculture. The paper proposed a working definition centered on ecological cycles and farm system outcomes. Highlights:

• While regenerative agriculture is gaining traction globally, its definition remains contested, says paper author Nicholas Bardsley of the Department of Agri-Food Economics and Marketing at the University of Reading. He argues that it is farming geared towards working with and enhancing natural nutrient, carbon, and hydrological cycles for agricultural benefit. Rather than prescribing specific methods, regenerative agriculture emphasizes observable outcomes — improved soil function, biological activity, and resilience — allowing flexibility across farming contexts.
• Bardsley writes that adopting regenerative farming practices is more critical than ever, given that depletion and degradation of soils have reached an alarming level. A recent study suggests that 90% of conventionally farmed soils are thinning, with many soils facing complete exhaustion within 100 years. Such estimates imply that the current agricultural system cannot “feed the world” in the long run; it can only do so temporarily at the expense of future harvests. Degraded soils also contribute to climate change and are linked to adverse human health outcomes.

For resources on how to build soil health profitably, see LSP’s Soil Health web page. A few years ago, LSP’s Brian DeVore took on the “sustainable vs. regenerative” debate in a blog.

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Fewer Than Half the Calories Grown on Farms Now Reach Our Plates

(8/25/25) The world produced enough calories in 2020 to feed 15 billion people — but only 50% of those calories ended up reaching people’s plates, writes New Scientist. Highlights:

• Food production is typically measured in terms of mass, but looking at it in terms of calories — the amount of energy in the food — is more informative when it comes to comparing different crops and assessing how much people need, according to Paul West, co-director and lead scientist of the Global Landscapes Initiative at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment.
• As part of a research project, West and his team found the total global calorie production increased by around 24% between 2010 and 2020. However, the number of calories available for people to eat increased by only 17%. The study does not account for food waste, which results in further lost calories.
• Shifting to healthier diets and reducing biofuel production could increase food availability without requiring more farmland, concluded the study.

LSP is working in western Minnesota to build a food system that is nutritious, builds healthy soil sustainably, and supports local economies. For details, check out our Community-Based Food Systems web page. In LSP Myth Buster #39 we pick apart the argument that we will need to nearly double crop production in order to feed 9 billion people.

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Study Maps Factory Farm Hotspots as Federal Court Tosses Emissions Lawsuit

(8/18/25) The New Lede describes a recent satellite-mapping study that shows roughly a quarter of the nation’s large cattle, dairy, and hog farms are located in just 30 counties. The research also links large farms — whether in these dense hotspots or scattered elsewhere — to elevated air pollution. Highlights:

• The new study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Communications Earth & Environment, is the first to nationally map out the size and location of large livestock operations  and estimate their contribution to nearby PM2.5 emissions. PM2.5 are tiny particulate air pollutants 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair and inhalation of them has been linked to asthma, heart and lung problems, and preterm births. The researchers found PM2.5 levels were roughly 28% higher near cattle feeding operations and 11% higher near hog operations compared to similar counties without livestock operations. Large livestock farms drive up PM2.5 levels through the ammonia contained in the massive amounts of manure and dust produced.
• Most of the cattle animal feeding operations were in the Midwest and West, which together account for eight of the top 10 cattle animal feeding operation states. The top five states were California, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Idaho, and Iowa. Overall, just 21 counties have 26% of the total cattle animal feeding operations. A majority of hog animal feeding operations were in the Midwest and South. Just 28 U.S. counties have 41% of the hog operations, and the top 10 states account for 86% of the total operations in the U.S. The top five states for hogs were Iowa, North Carolina, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Missouri.
• James A. Merchant, a professor emeritus at the University of Iowa departments of Occupational and Environmental Health and Internal Medicine, said the study is a useful sample of animal feeding operations, but “it is not clear if it is representative,” adding that the paper doesn’t include large poultry farms, which are a potent source of ammonia and drive PM2.5 levels in animal feeding operation-dense areas.
• This study comes on the heels of a federal ruling that supported exemptions for animal feeding operations from letting state and local officials know about “dangerous” pollutants, including air emissions.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is accepting comments until Wednesday, Sept. 10, on updating its Minnesota Nutrient Reduction Strategy 2025, which establishes a roadmap for reaching both phosphorus and nitrate reduction goals. This plan could have a major influence on helping farmers transition into systems that reduce negative impacts on water and air quality, among other things. For details on making your voice heard, see LSP’s latest action alert. For more on our work related to helping communities fight factory farms, click here.

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