U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced Monday the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC). In a press release from USDA, they say they came to that decision following a thorough line by line review of each of the Biden era partnerships, finding that the majority of the projects had sky-high administration fees which in many instances provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers.
Select projects may continue if it is demonstrated that a significant amount of the federal funds awarded will go to farmers. The release went to say, “We continue to support farmers and encourage partners to ensure their projects are farmer focused or re-apply to continue work that is aligned with the priorities of this Administration. With this action, USDA is cutting bureaucratic red tape, streamlining reporting, lowering the paperwork burden on producers and putting farmers first.”
Additionally, USDA reformed the Biden-era Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities initiative into the Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative, and they’ve identified changes to align the initiative with current Trump Administration priorities. USDA will review existing grant agreements based on three Farmer First policy priorities:
- A minimum of 65% of federal funds must go to producers;
- Grant recipients must have enrolled at least one producer as of 12/31/2024; and
- Grant recipients must have made a payment to at least one producer as of 12/31/2024.
“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” said Secretary Rollins. “The concerns of farmers took a backseat during the Biden Administration. During my short time as Secretary, I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity.”
USDA will contact current partners individually to provide information about their future participation. USDA will honor all eligible expenses incurred prior to April 13, 2025.
