-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Thirty years ago, Richard Nixon’s secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Earl Butz, relayed a message to farmers that transformed American agriculture: “Get big or get out.” Butz cut policies from the New Deal that sought to protect family farmers from corporations, and openly supported the interests of agricultural giants that control our food system today. Butz’ ideal agricultural system valued decentralization, efficiency and production above all else.
Project 2025 has a similar idea. The collection of far-right policies developed by the Heritage Foundation seeks to reshape all aspects of U.S.
federal government, from commerce to education to justice. The project proposal for the Department of Agriculture – which is detailed in a 22-page document on Project 2025’s website – seeks to eliminate virtually all USDA regulations on farms so they can produce as much as possible, for as cheap as possible, regardless of the consequences. Related The grift behind Project 2025: Leader John McEntee made an app to hustle cash from lonely MAGA men It praises the consolidation of American agriculture, citing that farm output nearly tripled from 1948 to 2019, while the amount of land farmed decreased significantly.
More yield, less cost. It’s true, but it’s not a good thing. From 1978 to 2017, U.
S. farmland acreage declined 13%, but the amount of harvested cropland in large farms nearly doubled, according .