U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins joined U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in announcing a move to elevate farm security to national security concern.
Rollins said her Make Agriculture Great Again initiative included the USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan that would elevate American agriculture as a key element of the country’s national security and address threats from foreign adversaries.
“We feed the world. We lead the world. And we’ll never let foreign adversaries control our land, our labs, or our livelihoods,” Rollins said. “This Action Plan puts America’s farmers, families, and future first—exactly where they belong.”
The announcement comes just weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had charged foreign nationals, including a Chinese Communist Party member, with smuggling a potential agroterrorism weapon into the country. The scheme involved a noxious fungus, a U.S. research lab and foreign actors infiltrating American research, buying farmland and stealing American technology.
Rollins said the National Farm Security Action Plan would address U.S. foreign farmland ownership, refocus domestic investment into key agricultural supply chain sectors, protect the U.S. nutrition safety net from fraud and foreign exploitation, defend agricultural research and innovation, crack down on bio-threats and protect critical infrastructure.
“Farm security is national security. The Department of Justice will continue working to prosecute those who threaten American agriculture, investigate cases of potential agro-terrorism, and protect America’s farmers from illegal threats at home and abroad,” Bondi said.
The move was lauded by several governors, as well as Congressmembers and state agricultural leaders, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“Arkansas led the nation in kicking Communist China off our farmland and out of our state because we understand that farm security is national security,” Sanders said. “I applaud President Trump and Secretary Rollins for putting America first with this bold USDA Action Plan to protect our food supply, our economy, and our freedom.”