WASHINGTON — Under President Joe Biden, American dairy farmers were forced to pay fees that went to far-Left climate initiatives. On Thursday, the Department of Agriculture ended that practice, The Daily Wire can first report.
American dairy farmers are required to pay fees as part of the Dairy Checkoff Program, which are meant to fund research and education that strengthens markets for American dairy products, a Department of Agriculture official shared. But under Biden, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy began putting the fees towards Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives including greenhouse gas and net-zero targets.
Thursday’s action will end checkoff support for projects focused on ESG but keep any “necessary administrative functions” that are not focused on the ESG initiatives. In a Wednesday evening interview with The Daily Wire, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said President Donald Trump was committed to ending this mandatory wokeness.
“Since President Trump first came into office, one of the top-of-mind issues as he campaigned around the country and then built his cabinet was our country and our leaders bowing to the radical climate agenda of the Left,” Rollins said. “Those days are over.”
A memo obtained by The Daily Wire, sent Thursday to the chief executive officers, chairs, members, and research and promotion boards in the American dairy industry, informs them that all research and promotion boards must align with the Trump administration’s priorities focused on agricultural production, producer profitability, and “freedom from ideologically driven mandates.”
“Assessments should not underwrite environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks, net-zero, or climate-neutrality initiatives that impose non-statutory costs, restrictions, or commitments on domestic producers or processors,” the memo states.
Checkoffs are designed to promote and provide research to boost demand for specific agricultural products. Farmers pay checkoff fees based on how much of a given product they sell. Other checkoff programs include the American Pecan Promotion Board, the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, the Real Christmas Tree Board, the Mushroom Council, or the Hass Avocado Board.
The USDA argues that the Dairy Checkoff is effective when not focused on leftist ideological goals, citing economists at Texas A&M who found that Checkoff investments increased demand for dairy products and dairy exports.
It takes time for all the agencies to dig in and figure out how to root out climate agendas, Rollins noted, but USDA has been “completely recalibrating” around farmers and ranchers and food systems instead of DEI and “crazy research grants to study, you know, transgender food justice in San Francisco — which was actually a research grant.”
In a separate letter to National Dairy Board Chair Lolly Lesher, Rollins names a number of initiatives that USDA is scrutinizing for ESG support, including the Greener Cattle Initiative, U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative, Pathways to Dairy Net Zero, Sustainability Alliance, and the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment.
“USDA is advancing this administration’s economic and environmental goals by aligning checkoff programs with its policy positions,” Rollins wrote. “The policy of USDA — first and foremost — is to promote American agriculture. Effective immediately, all projects funded by the dairy checkoff program must focus on long-term value creation for future generations and not activities advancing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks, net-zero, or climate-neutrality initiatives.”
“This is the bigger war on cattle,” Rollins told The Daily Wire, pointing to Biden Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s assertion to the United Nations that he expects farmers and ranchers to be at the front lines of battling climate change.
“What we’re doing is we are saying that no longer can these mandatory check off dollars be used for the ideological ESG agendas, the environmental social governance agendas, that obviously raise costs and constraint production,” Rollins said. “From here forward, we’re going to align all of this on opening markets, on building demand, and on putting farmers first, which has always been the goal of these programs.”
“We’ve got to root all this corruption and darkness out,” Rollins said, “and this is a big step in that direction.”
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