Corporate Land Grab: Trump Signs Executive Order Advancing Regenerative Agriculture To Support Biofuel And Ethanol Production Under The Guise Of Cleaner Food
"This is exactly what President Trump’s America First agenda looks like," said USDA Sec. Brooke Rollins.
Following a dinner with farmers at the White House last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order advancing regenerative agriculture and farming practices with the alleged goal of promoting healthier foods and less toxic husbandry practices in the United States.
The EO — Advancing Regenerative Agriculture and Strengthening American Farm Resilience — references how the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) commission was created under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, for “federal departments and agencies to work with farmers to ensure that United States food is the healthiest, most abundant, and most affordable in the world,” the EO reads.
The EO adds:
American farmers and ranchers have always prioritized care of their land and are increasingly interested in adopting innovative conservation farming practices like regenerative agriculture. These practices strengthen soil health, lower input costs, improve chemical efficiency to reduce overall use, improve farm profitability, maintain yields, increase market value, expand access to new markets, and strengthen rural economies. My Administration is committed to further actions that support farmers and ranchers as they seek to adopt these practices.
Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to promote continued advances in precision agriculture technologies; significantly increase Federal investment in regenerative agriculture practices, research, and education; and spur private-sector innovation in farm modernization by reducing red tape and strengthening public-private partnerships. These actions empower American farmers and ranchers with the additional mechanisms to ensure a healthy, abundant, and affordable food supply for the American people.
Indeed, there are studies that have shown that so-called regenerative practices not only help repair years of conventional farmland, but also boost the nutrient density of the produce.
Trump’s EO says it will help farmers and those interested in getting involved in this field to have easier access to it. It also directs the EPA to perform a review of chemical products in use that may be harming the environment, and by extension crops, animals, and people. The official fact sheet states:
The Order directs the Secretary of Agriculture to expand the reach of the Department of Agriculture’s Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program, broadly share results with stakeholders, and create public-private partnerships in order to increase capacity for farmers interested in adopting regenerative farming practices.
The Order directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to prioritize registration of alternative crop protection tools and review data on pre-harvest desiccation uses to ensure alignment with safety and labeling standards.
The Order directs the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to develop research methodologies and frameworks to advance our scientific understanding of the effect of cumulative exposure across chemical classes that are regulated by statute in the food supply.
The Order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to identify creative solutions that evaluate exposure, diagnosis, and treatments of cumulative chemical exposures on individual health and prioritize research of new, innovative, and cost-effective alternatives to historic crop protection tools.
Furthermore, according to an HHS press release, RFK Jr. stated:
“Making America Healthy Again begins with understanding that health starts long before someone enters a doctor’s office. It starts with the food we eat and the way it is produced. Today’s Executive Order reflects President Trump’s commitment to working alongside America’s farmers to strengthen our food system while advancing research that will deepen our understanding of how agricultural practices, nutrition, environmental exposures, and human health are connected. America cannot Make America Healthy Again without America’s farmers.”
However, this EO seems to contradict other policies of the Trump administration.
Last week, the Supreme Court effectively provided immunity to Bayer’s Monsanto, and by extension other agro-tech and pharmaceutical companies, and cannot be held liable under state laws for failing to warn consumers about the alleged cancer risks of its weedkiller Roundup, caused by the main active ingredient glyphosate, on its label. After plenty of lobbying from Bayer and the Trump administration, this important ruling effectively renders all lawsuits against Bayer/Monsanto and other herbicide and chemical producers moot.
Moreover, in February, Trump signed an EO declaring domestic glyphosate production a national security issue, which deeply enraged MAHA supporters, as did this latest Supreme Court ruling, especially considering the Trump administration requested that the Justices rule in Bayer’s favor. On top of that, Trump’s EPA has been rapidly approving and deregulating a number petro-chemicals and pesticides for use.
But this sudden push for regenerative agriculture appears to be about more than healthier produce and being good stewards of the land.
In a separate press release published by the USDA, Secretary Brooke Rollins “simultaneously announced a final Regenerative Feedstock Rule, a landmark action that will help farmers voluntarily capture new value from regenerative agricultural practices through biofuel markets.”
In other words, Trump’s EO opens the doorway for farms to cultivate more crops to produce ethanol fuel, despite the fact that Trump’s EO makes zero mention of biofuels and ethanol.
The press release states:
The announcement builds upon President Trump’s historic record of support for American agriculture and domestic biofuels. From delivering nationwide year-round E15, establishing the highest Renewable Volume Obligations in American history, and extending the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, the Trump Administration has consistently expanded markets for America’s farmers while strengthening U.S. energy independence.
Today’s Executive Order and USDA’s Regenerative Feedstock Rule provide the next critical step by ensuring producers have a practical pathway to benefit from those expanding markets.
Together, President Trump’s Executive Order and USDA’s Regenerative Feedstock Rule represent the most significant market-driven effort ever undertaken to reward America’s farmers for voluntarily implementing regenerative practices while producing the crops that fuel America’s growing bioeconomy.
The Regenerative Feedstock Rule establishes a framework to connect regenerative agriculture practices to new markets within the biofuel supply chain for corn, soybeans, sorghum, and spring canola. These standards include:
Covered biofuel feedstock crops and participating entities throughout the supply chain;
Field-level quantification of crop-specific carbon intensity;
Mass balance chain-of-custody standards, including traceability and recordkeeping;
Auditing and verification requirements; and
Regenerative agriculture practice standards for covered feedstock crops.
USDA is also releasing an updated USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (USDA FD-CIC) to help producers quantify regenerative practices such as cover crops, and improved nutrient management, and conservation tillage—including no-till and reduced tillage. Producers can use the resulting reports when marketing eligible feedstocks to participating biofuel producers.
The new framework creates significant opportunities for America’s leading biofuel feedstock producers. American farmers currently produce approximately 6 billion bushels of corn used annually for ethanol production, with 68 percent of corn farmers already implementing at least one regenerative practice. Likewise, producers grow approximately 1.8 billion bushels of soybeans for biofuel production, while 70 percent of soybean farmers already utilize at least one regenerative practice. As participation grows, USDA expects the rule to expand premium market opportunities for producers across the country.
The Regenerative Feedstock Rule supports President Trump’s broader agenda to strengthen rural America by expanding domestic markets, promoting American energy dominance, reducing regulatory burdens, encouraging regenerative agriculture, and ensuring America’s farmers remain the most productive and competitive in the world.
“Today’s USDA’s Regenerative Feedstock Rule put farmers, not Washington bureaucrats, in the driver’s seat. Instead of mandates, we’re creating market opportunities. Farmers who choose to implement regenerative practices will have new opportunities to earn premium prices, lower their input costs, improve soil health, and strengthen the long-term profitability of their operations,” said Secretary Rollins. This is exactly what President Trump’s America First agenda looks like: empowering farmers and ranchers, supporting rural communities, driving lower input costs, improving farmer profitability, advancing regenerative agriculture, and helping Make America Healthy Again.”
Ahead of Trump’s EO and the USDA’s announcement, President Trump announced that he wants Congress to make E15 ethanol gas blend available permanently.
The term “regenerative” is still a loosely regulated term and therefore allows for some interpretation.
A number of major conglomerates and corporations, many of which are deeply involved in conventional farming and ultraprocessed food production, have been investing millions of dollars into acquiring land for “regenerative” practices. Others are not even companies that are typically associated with farming.
In 2022, “Vence, a US startup that offers ‘virtual fencing’ for ranchers using regenerative ag practices, has secured funding from the venture arms of two major corporates: Merck & Co and oil and gas giant Shell,” Agfunder News reported at the time.
Agfunder News also covered in early 2024 a list of corporations investing in or pledging regenerative ag commitments; ranging from Cargill, to Coca-Cola, to JBS, General Mills, Mondelez, Nestle, Pepsi, Unilever, Walmart and many more.
Jennifer Martson for the outlet said at the time:
“One big challenge is that “regenerative agriculture” still has no set definition. While that still holds true, the bigger observation in 2024 is the number of companies leaning heavily on sustainability jargon to describe goals. With greenwashing pretty rampant nowadays, it will be important to check beneath the PR-friendly language at the actual acres, dates, practices and prescriptions.”
Also in 2019, the Soil Health Institute, in collaboration with Sara Eckhouse, executive director of FoodShot Global, published a report listing a number of organizations they partner with to invest in regenerative agriculture. These included Rabobank, Rockefeller Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Stone Barns Center for Food and Innovation, Builders’ Initiative, Armonia, alongside a number of venture funds and NGOs.
In 2025, Cargill was the top investor in supposed regenerative ag companies, “emphasizing soil health, carbon credits, and sustainable crop production,” SAC INSiGHT reported in November of last year.
Greenwashing or not, the USDA has continued to shell-out cash for this venture. In December, the department awarded $700 million for new regen farming projects.
Farm Action president and cofounder Angela Huffman weighed in at the time, saying:
“Done right, this investment will help farmers lower their input costs, break free from the export-driven commodity overproduction treadmill, and move toward healthier, more resilient, and more profitable farming systems.
“If the Trump administration wants this initiative to succeed, USDA must make sure the Natural Resources Conservation Service—after significant funding cuts—has enough staff to get these dollars out quickly and fairly, reaching farmers across America, not just the largest operations by default.
“We cannot allow a repeat of the Climate-Smart Commodities program, where projects involving multinational corporations like JBS and Tyson Foods received the lion’s share of program dollars, fueling further consolidation.”
Sarah Starman, a senior campaigner at environmental organization Friends of the Earth US, said something similar: “The USDA’s new Regenerative Agriculture Initiative is a step in the right direction and we applaud the intent. But it will only be effective if USDA reverses the past year of massive cuts to on-the-ground conservation staff. Regenerative agriculture requires whole-farm, science-based planning, and right now the agency lacks the army of specialists needed to help farmers design and implement those plans.”
Starman, concerned about chemical usage, added:
“Phasing out harmful agrochemicals – the synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that harm human health and degrade soil health – must be at the center of any regenerative program.
“The new initiative’s incentives for Integrated Pest Management fall far short of what is needed to help farmers get off the pesticide treadmill and spur a transition to a truly regenerative food system. The initiative must be updated to include specific, measurable incentives for deep reductions in agrochemical use if it is to deliver truly healthy, resilient soils and promote human health.”
David Murphy, founder of United We Eat and a former top fundraiser for RFK Jr’s presidential campaign, called the USDA announcement “a significant step in the right direction.” But he too took issue with the plan.
“However, this same year, the USDA cut more than a billion dollars from local and regional food programs—such as farm-to-school and farm-to-food-bank—that provide critical markets for regenerative farmers. Clearly, there is still a long way to go.”
“If policymakers are serious about transitioning American agriculture toward farmer prosperity and soil regeneration, they should restore the thousands of recently eliminated NRCS staff positions that are essential to supporting farmers through this transition. USDA should also reinstate the many programs that have been cut this year, as outlined in the letter from MAHA leaders and MAHA-aligned farmers.”
The USDA press release in December noted that the pilot program will create further “public-private partnerships.”
“There is a growing desire among private companies to fund conservation practices that improve natural resources management. This announcement unlocks new opportunities for USDA to leverage existing authorities to create public-private partnerships within NRCS conservation programs. These partnerships will allow USDA to match private funding, in turn stretching taxpayer dollars further, and bringing new capacity to producers interested in adopting regenerative practices.”
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
I didn’t trust USDA’s regenerative ag scheme in December, and now we know for a surety what this is about.
This is a blatant, in your face, corporate land-grab being fostered and facilitated by the Trump administration that allows these corporations to buy-up even more land for themselves; then greenwash their practices and products, while Rollins and RFK Jr. can brag about how they, and Trump, are prioritizing Americans’ health. Total duplicity!
Follow this: All in one week, the Supreme Court, at the behest of the Trump administration and Bayer, ruled to protect glyphosate-based pesticides (and by extension many other ones as well), after having already prioritized glyphosate production in the U.S.; then to save face, Trump signs an EO promoting regenerative agriculture and easing the barrier to entry, supposedly to promote healthier food and ecosystems (just ignore that Supreme Court ruling); but then on the same day, Rollins and the USDA reveal it’s actually being used to promote GMO cover crops sprayed with chemicals so the U.S. can grow more crops needed for biofuels and ethanol (which utterly destroys older engines, has poor miles per gallon ratings, and still emits harmful emissions), which is nowhere mentioned in the EO Trump signed; which is being done in part to compensate for the higher for longer oil prices caused by Trump’s meddling in Iran, while at the same time subtly enforcing the globalist climate change all in one! Utter duplicity.
That is what “the art of the deal” looks like.
Micah 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. [2] And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. [3] Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.
The term ‘regenerative’ has become another ill-defined and loaded word in the lexicon of many in the food/ag/pharma space that can mean so many different things because the term is unregulated. Sure, if a small, local, organic farmer says they are regenerative, then odds are that farm is more genuine. But when we see these major corporations getting involved, the same people that have poisoned and killed people slowly for decades, and then sold you the cure, why would we trust them?
If you are like me, in no way can I trust that these corporations have our best interests in mind. They have poisoned and wreaked havoc on the health of generations for their own personal gain, and now they suddenly care about being good stewards of the land? No, this is a land grab to consolidate more assets and land for themselves; and this latest EO proves that. Donald Judas Trump, RFK Jr. and Rollins have once again proven that they are nothing more than lackies for the corporate and technocratic agenda.
Amos 8:4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, [5] Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? [6] That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? [7] The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
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I think the word "regenerative" just means fake, artificial, or inauthentic, or literally "re-fashioned" after the original. It is a COUNTERFEIT. Just in the way that Satan does everything since he cannot create anything, he can only counterfeit it. They use it in "regenerative medicine" too, which basically just means they are using such things as hydrogels, polymers, and other synthetic means to create some facsimile of the real thing, like joints, heart valves, etc. They are not natural and have no business being in the body or in our food chain either.
It is just more franken-food.
I would like to know when these people are going to figure out that health does not come from synthetic chemicals or substances. They can't improve on what God has already given us. And, it isn't going to do them any good either. They will be sick just like the rest of us since they will have to eat it too.
And these poor farmers are at their mercy, and it sure does look like they will ultimately lose their land too. I hope they are wise enough to see the carrot and the stick, and will reject it.
I am literally feeling like Paul when he said in 2 Cor. 4:8-10:
"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."
I am a small organic farmer. Just a small one. We farm what we need and give the rest to the less fortunate.
I don't know this term regenerative farming. Never ever heard of it before. It must be word salad mixed with some manure.
Glyophosites in my Spanish dielect is called quemante. (Burner English) It literally burns the ground killing everything for not just months but years.
It also filters into the water table a streams.
Something about a chemical that burns the ground killing everything can't be good in your drinking water.