Flag Family’s Scott Hennen visits with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins
WASHINGTON – In an exclusive interview with The Flag’s Scott Hennen, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins spoke on concerns regarding tariffs, the State of the Union address, current farmer concerns, partnerships with neighboring countries and the biofuels industry.
State of the Union
Rollins said Tuesday night’s State of the Union (SOTU) address ‘was one of the greatest State of the Unions’ she has ever see.
“I felt like it was a declaring triumph against all odds a year ago with everything that we inherited to see where we are a year in,” she told Hennen on Wednesday morning. “There’s still so much to do, especially in agriculture, but I’m just so proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
Tariffs and trade relations
The Trump Administration has had the ability to complete deals due to tariffs, but yet there are farmers who are concerned about tariffs, despite the benefits farmers will see because of it.
“There have been a lot of people who have really doubted this approach and for good reason,” Rollins said. “We saw the average tariff of our goods going out of America into other countries at 15%, while America was charging 5%.”
The tariffs began benefitting other countries but not the U.S., at which point Trump said he wanted to make changes.
The changes have now solidified 15 new trade deals, exports of dairy and corn up 20 and 29 percent, respectively.
“And this is just in the first year,” Rollins said. “We haven’t even really effectuated most of these deals yet.”
Soybeans has been a large part of their discussions.
“I joke that I think never before in the history of our country has soybeans ever been discussed more in an oval office than in this presidency,” Rollins said. “But when you look at last year, even though there was some touch and go there, we actually had a higher price on soybeans with the tariffs and with the exports than we had in the prior years.”
China has met their 12 million metric ton soybean commitment and are expected to fulfill an order for 25 million metric tons over the next three years.
“We think there are more big orders coming in,” Rollins said.
Partnerships with Canada, Mexico
Talks continue regarding partnerships with Canada in the ag trading sector.
“I met with the Ag Counsellor over at USDA. We did a wonderful bilateral meeting,” Rollins said. “The importance of that partner cannot be understated. We were both very bullish and encouraged that we’re going to be able to do some great things.”
She also highlighted the important partner in Mexico.
On Canada, Rollins said an announcement may be coming soon.
“The President is hyper focused on getting somewhere very positive with Canada,” she said. “I think we’re going to see some really good news soon.”
Economic, mental health of U.S. Farmers
Farmers have struggled as of late with several aspects of the farming operation.
Inflation has impacted input costs, debt and mental health have continued to be stressors for the farming industry.
Rollins said she’s working to address the issues.
“Not just the last four or five years, but to be especially in the row crop business, but really all of agriculture, but for our row croppers to only make money every two of 10 years, which is the average to be reliant on a government check,” she said. “These farmers are the most proud, the most pioneering, the most they are the best of us. They are the best of America. And they are whom I have worked in Washington over the last year to put back at the center of policymaking. It is unsustainable for us to continue to issue check after check after check, because the farmers are still barely surviving.”
She said that while farmers are surviving, the bottom line continues to struggle.
“Even with those checks, where you see the benefit of all the government support going is the shocking rise of fertilizer, seed, tractors,” Rollins said. “So, the system has become so dysfunctional that as we are working to make sure these farmers can survive, they’re barely surviving, but others are getting rich off of the program.”
She pointed to the trade deals as being an important part to change.
Rollins plans to announce something soon on supporting farmers in the mental health realm.
“I do think that we are in a once in a generation opportunity with this president at this moment in time to really make real change to not Band-Aid, to not duct tape, to not bubble gum, to get to the next year and the next year,” she said.
Biofuels and 45Z
While acknowledging the language is not yet final, Rollins indicated that the outcome will be “incredibly positive” for the biofuel community in relation to the 45Z tax credit.
“But our community will be very, very happy, I believe, when they see where this has landed,” she said.
She expects full clarity on this policy within the next 30 days.
“I had several meetings with my counterparts across the Cabinet to work really hard to move this in the direction that’s most beneficial to our farmers,” Rollins said. “And huge credit to Lee Zeldin, to Doug Burgum, to Chris Wright, to Howard Lutnick, to Scott Bessent. This rose to the level of the very top of our government talking about 45Zs and renewable volume obligations and all of the thing(s).”
