‘Farming in the dark’: Brooke Rollins’ Leadership, DOGE’s Grip and the Cost to American Agriculture

(7/22/25) According to Investigate Midwest, during her first six months in office U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins  has brought sweeping changes to USDA and largely embraced President Donald Trump’s agenda of downsizing the federal government. Mass firings have purged scientists, whose discoveries underpin modern agriculture, from seeds to soil management. Indiscriminate terminations will likely deter younger, qualified candidates from joining the effort to address agriculture’s pressing challenges, such as adapting to climate change and containing animal diseases like bird flu, according to sources interviewed by Investigate Midwest. Highlights:

• In March, Rollins cancelled more than $1 billion in funding that paid small farmers to supply fresh meat and produce to schools and food banks. Supporters of the initiatives — named the Local Food for Schools and Child Care and Local Food Purchasing Assistance programs — said they helped local economies and supplied nutritious meals to growing kids.
•  The USDA has forced out 98 of 167 food safety scientists at the Agricultural Research Service, a department arm that studies how to prevent deadly pathogens, such as E. coli or salmonella, from entering the food supply.
• In January, before Rollins was sworn in, USDA employees were directed to “unpublish any landing pages (on the USDA’s website) focused on climate change,” according to court records. Research involving climate change has also been effectively banned, current employees said. If studies include words such as “climate,” “clean energy,” “sustainable construction” or dozens of others, the research will not be funded.

For information on LSP’s work related to federal policy, click here. A recent National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition commentary discussed the potential impacts of a reorganized USDA.

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Researchers Scramble to Find Money for Sustainable Agriculture After Cuts

(7/21/25) The Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2023 set aside more than $20 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That included money for research into new, more climate-friendly crops and practices and to help farmers transition to them. In April, President Trump canceled that portion of the funding, calling it a “scam.” Researchers are now scrambling to find money to complete their work, reports National Public Radio. Highlights:

• The story focuses on ag scientist Jerry Hatfield, whose work on camelina was funded through a $3 billion Biden-era program for climate-smart agriculture. In April, President Trump terminated the program, and now Hatfield’s research and a lot of other climate-related ag science is at risk.
• Ag scientists are now scrambling to find alternative funding. Hatfield reapplied under the reworked USDA program. He hasn’t heard back yet. But the growing season — data season — is well underway, so he’s been donating his time since April.
• Colorado farmer Roy Pfaltzgraff says the research is more valuable to him than any cash. The science informs how he manages his land — which crops to plant, how to harvest them — to keep ahead of intensifying drought as the climate warms. “How do you assign a dollar value to that? It’s like the value of knowing that changes everything from now on,” said Pfaltzgraff.

Roy Pfaltzgraff was recently featured on an LSP Ear to the Ground podcast. Check out LSP’s white paper, “Farming to Capture Carbon & Address Climate Change Through Building Soil Health.”

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Size of ‘Dead Zone’ in the Gulf Expected to be About Average this Year. Funding Woes for Research and Action Could be Much Bigger.

(6/12/25) The annual forecast for the oxygen-deprived “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico will be between 4,800 and 5,500 square miles this summer, about three times larger than what is desirable, according to New Orleans Public Radio. When nitrogen and phosphorus from farm fields in Minnesota and other Midwestern states wash down into the Gulf, the excess nutrients can cause algae to bloom near the surface of the water. This algae dies and decomposes, sinking deeper into the water and depleting the oxygen that fish and other aquatic life need to survive, affecting commercial and recreational fishing as well as causing ecological harm. Highlights:

•  Efforts to reduce nutrient loading in the Gulf are largely outlined in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Hypoxia Task Force Action Plan. Long-term, the goal is to reduce the zone to about 1,900 square miles by 2035. The plan’s short-term goal is to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus emptying into the Gulf by 20% of the long-term average this year.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts the size of the dead zone at the beginning of the summer using an aggregate of models from various partner universities to try and anticipate how big the low-oxygen area that threatens fish and aquatic life will be. The agency will monitor and survey the dead zone throughout the summer and release size estimates of the actual dead zone in August. “The driving force is the amount of nitrate — nitrogen — that’s loaded into the Gulf of Mexico,” said Nancy Rabalais, a Louisiana State University research scientist.
• Whether key federal agencies such as the U.S Geological Survey and NOAA will have sufficient funding and manpower to gauge if reduction goals are even being met is uncertain, said Doug Daigle, LSU coastal research scientist and coordinator for the Louisiana Hypoxia Working Group, an organization working to address the Gulf’s dead zone. “There’s a lot of question marks about what’s happening to the federal agencies and their capacity…between the mass firings and all the other things that are happening,” he said.

For more on building the kind of soil health that reduces reliance on fertilizer inputs, see LSP’s Soil Builders’ web page. Check out LSP’s blog on the positive role regenerative farming can play in reducing fertilizer pollution.

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Finstad asks EPA to Rescind Approval of 2023 Petition on Southern Minnesota Water Quality

(7/17/25) U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, R-Minn., has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind its acceptance of an April 2023 petition from environmental groups concerned about nitrate levels in southeastern Minnesota water, according to Agweek. Highlights:

• In April 2023, a coalition consisting of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Environmental Working Group, Minnesota Well Owners Organization, Center for Food Safety, Clean Up the River Environment, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Mississippi River, Izaak Walton League Minnesota Division, the Land Stewardship Project, Minnesota Trout Unlimited, and Mitchell Hamline Public Health Law Center sent a petition to the EPA saying more action was required to protect water quality in the karst region, which includes Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Wabasha and Winona counties. Of particular concern is the amount of nitrate that’s escaping farm fields and making its way into groundwater.
• In a letter dated Nov. 7, 2023, the EPA notified the state of Minnesota that it had 30 days to submit a timeframe and work plan that  includes education and outreach as well as alternative drinking water to residents with water above the maximum contaminant level — 10 mg/L or 10 parts per million — for nitrates in groundwater from their private wells.
• In Finstad’s letter to the EPA, he expressed concern that the petition urged the EPA to issue orders that would prohibit concentrated animal feeding operations from expanding or building new in the area and that the EPA’s subsequent letter to the Minnesota Departments of Health and Agriculture and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency encouraged the state to develop and implement more stringent CAFO permitting standards.

For more on this issue and the water quality petition, see LSP’s blog, “Nitrate’s Season of Reckoning.”

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Minnesota Looking to Make First Major Change to Feedlot Regulations in 25 years

(7/17/25) The state of Minnesota has asked for public input as it looks to change its rules for livestock feedlots for the first time in 25 years, according to Minnesota Public Radio. There are about 18,000 feedlots in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Since the state made its last major changes to feedlot regulations in 2000, feedlot operations have grown and consolidated considerably. Highlights:

• Compared to a quarter-century ago, more liquid manure is being generated and bigger liquid manure handling systems have been developed, said Lisa Scheirer, the MPCA’s feedlot section manager. There’s been an increase in the amount of manure that is sold or given away to cropland farmers for land application.
• “…with the land application of manure, if manure is applied properly, at the right time, at the right rate, in the right location, it’s a valuable resource. It can improve soil health, and it provides nutrients to crops,” said Scheirer. “If manure isn’t applied properly, there’s a risk of it leaching through the soil profile into the groundwater and running off fields and into surface waters. And that can impact people’s drinking water wells, which can impact their health.”
• The initial public input period on the revised feedlot rules wrapped up July 22; it’s anticipated that the total rulemaking process will last up to two to three years.

LSP recently submitted comments on revising the state’s feedlot rules. A summary of those comments is here. For more information, contact LSP organizer Matthew Sheets via e-mail.

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The ‘Oscar’ of Food Prizes Goes to a Brazilian who Harnessed the Power of Bacteria

(5/13/25) A Brazilian microbiologist who researches how bacteria can serve as a natural source of soil fertility has been awarded the World Food Prize, according to National Public Radio. Highlights:

• In her research, Mariangela Hungria has isolated useful strains of bacteria called rhizobia which inhabit nodules on soybean roots, capture nitrogen from the air, and convert it into a form that feeds the plant. She also documented benefits from a strain of another soil microbe, Azospirillum, which releases hormones that stimulate the growth of roots, allowing plants like corn, wheat, and pasture grasses to capture nutrients more efficiently.
• In Brazil, studies have shown that the microbes allow farmers to get by with using less chemical fertilizer, saving money and reducing environmental problems.

For details on LSP’s work related to the role innovative composting can play in soil microbiology, click here.

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Growers Benefit from Diversifying Their Crop Rotations

(7/23/25) Low prices for corn and soybeans are predicted to continue for the foreseeable future, making it a good time for farmers to diversify, reports Morning Ag Clips. Highlights:

• Last year, University of Minnesota agriculture business extension educator Dave Bau predicted that the cost to grow one bushel of corn in 2025 would be about $4.82 without including costs for labor or government payments. He predicted soybeans would cost around $11.93 per bushel. It has been difficult for many farmers to sell their 2024 crop without losses, and 2025 looks similarly bleak.
• Crop-Livestock operations are one good example of a diversified business. Livestock markets don’t always move with crop markets but sometimes move opposite. The benefit of this is that when crop markets are low, it’s somewhat likely that livestock markets will be better and vice versa. To a smaller degree, adding an additional crop to a corn-soybean rotation can help reduce the risk of only selling to poor markets.
• There are also biological benefits to diversifying farm operations. One notable advantage to raising livestock is improved access to manure, which provides nutrients for crops and organic matter for the soil.
• Diversified crop rotations provide benefits as well. Long term research by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has suggested that outcomes for each crop tend to be better when grown with more variety of crops in the rotation. Diversified crop rotations also break up pest cycles, reducing the need for pesticides.

On Saturday, Aug. 2, LSP is holding a networking meeting in Madison, Minn., on how farms can diversify their rotation utilizing small grains. Details are here. For more on how one farm has integrated livestock into its cropping operation, see “Not an Either-Or Choice” in the latest Land Stewardship Letter.

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