750 farmers sign open letter to Rollins to lobby for crop diversity

One of the most consistent criticisms against Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is her perceived favoritism toward commodity production and other larger-scale American farming operations. Those critics suggested during her confirmation hearing she would be “a setback” for small and family farms who are being squeezed out by “powerful food and agriculture corporations.”

Those concerns have solidified themselves in an open letter to Rollins signed by roughly 750 growers from every state in the nation as well as from Puerto Rico. The letter is intended to promote the importance of diversifying the crops that American farmers grow and to improve the markets they access to help strengthen farmers’ profitability and resilience, while ensuring Americans’ access to healthy and affordable foods.

It reads, in part:

“While America’s food and agriculture industry is among the most productive in the world, our farms and rural communities today are also vulnerable. Unreliable export markets and increased dependence on imported food, combined with extreme weather fluctuations and soaring input costs mean we need more choices and opportunities to adapt our operations than ever before.

“As Secretary, we ask that you embrace and elevate the diversification of agriculture systems as a top priority for USDA over the next four years. Diversifying farming systems is a key lever that addresses farm profitability and opportunity, diet-related disease, and declining rural populations.

“A bold, USDA-wide agricultural diversification initiative will help the administration achieve many of its goals, such as building a stronger rural economy and increasing domestic production.”

A review of the hundreds of farms that signed onto the letter show that most are smaller (under 50 acres) and/or consist of niche industries, such as sheep raising or organic produce production — specifically the kinds of producers who feel their voice often gets overlooked and don’t feel as if powerful groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation do an adequate job lobbying for them.

Farmers from Iowa, Illinois, and Virginia are among the most-represented in the letter.

The farmers and ranchers contend that there are a number of ways to diversify agricultural production, including by adding new crops to rotations, utilizing cover crops, strip cropping, intercropping, and building agroforestry systems like alley cropping and windbreaks, which integrate trees with crops. Livestock producers and ranchers can diversify by using intensive rotational grazing, multi-species grazing systems, and silvopasture systems that add trees to grazing land. They can also introduce crop-livestock integration or perennial conservation elements like pollinator plantings, hedgerows and buffer strips, which support soil health, water quality and biodiversity.

“As stewards of the land, farmers and ranchers are always looking for ways to improve our agricultural resources,” said Kelli Ebel, a Texas rancher alongside her husband, Karl Ebel. “Through regenerative practices, we build sustainability, enabling multiple sources of revenue from a more resilient land. We want to help other farmers and ranchers, and future generations, experience the multitude of benefits that we have on Ebel Grasslands.”