In recent discussions surrounding food policy, the focus has shifted towards the implications of ultra-processed foods in developed nations, raising concerns about sustainability and health. Simultaneously, attention has turned to animal farming and so-called organic practices, where groups like the MAHA community advocate for regenerative farming. However, this often seems more like a rebranding of traditional factory farming rather than a genuine improvement in agricultural practices.
By Matthew Dominguez, the U.S. Executive Director at Compassion in World Farming, leading efforts to enhance the welfare of farmed animals and promote a food system beneficial for animals, people, and the planet. Originally published at Common Dreams
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently focused her efforts on American farmers and healthier food choices in opinion pieces published in USA Today and Newsweek. She highlights the values of independence, resilience, and patriotism embodied by family farmers while promoting a regenerative agriculture initiative worth $700 million, claiming it benefits rural America.
However, a deeper examination of Secretary Rollins and the USDA reveals a different story. What initially appears to be a progressive vision for regenerative agriculture is, upon closer inspection, a political maneuver intended to divert attention from the USDA’s ongoing support for industrial farming, rather than aiding family farmers.
By featuring Alexandre Family Farm as an example of a regenerative future, Secretary Rollins overlooks crucial facts: the farm is currently under investigation for severe animal cruelty, which contradicts the principles upon which regenerative agriculture is founded.
A USDA investigation obtained through the Freedom of Information Act has documented serious violations of both organic and animal welfare standards. The farm has acknowledged significant abuses—including the dragging of cows with machinery, horn-tipping without pain relief, and neglect leading to animal deaths from starvation and lack of care. Such practices cannot be rebranded as regenerative; they represent factory farming with a misleading veneer.
A healthy America requires new, bold regenerative policies, not branding.
Choosing this farm as the USDA’s emblem of regeneration signals to large industrial livestock corporations that even amidst egregious cruelty, the USDA will provide them with recognition and, often, federal funds. This sends a troubling message to the very farmers Secretary Rollins purports to represent: the government will not support those who genuinely engage in the difficult work of authentic regenerative agriculture, instead rewarding those who prioritize scale and branding over genuine practices.
Secretary Rollins often refers to states as “laboratories of innovation,” an idea that should instill hope in rural communities. Yet, she advocates for the EATS Act and the Save Our Bacon Act—federal preemption measures aimed at undermining states’ ability to regulate safer and more humane agricultural practices within their jurisdictions. Notably, these bills face bipartisan opposition from over 200 members of Congress.
It is contradictory to celebrate state innovation while simultaneously seeking to limit it.
Both the EATS and Save Our Bacon Acts, supported by the factory-farm-aligned National Pork Producers Council, aim to dismantle more than 1,000 local health, safety, and animal welfare laws. These bills permit large agribusinesses to override local regulations, flooding American markets with cheap, low-welfare meat, thereby undermining the legitimate regenerative and higher-welfare family farms Secretary Rollins claims to support.
The USDA’s $700 million regenerative package mirrors this trend, representing only a fraction of the support required. For decades, federal policies have funneled billions into the nation’s largest factory farms. From 2018 to 2023, the top 10,000 livestock feeding operations—mainly concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—received more than $12 billion in federal support. A mere 10% of the largest producers now claim nearly 80% of all subsidies, leaving small and medium-sized farms with minimal support.
Secretary Rollins is aware of this, yet her policy initiatives fail to address these inequalities.
The contradiction is stark: while she extols the virtues of American farmers’ independence, she endorses policies that remove market protections and enable their largest competitors to thrive. She leads an agency that purports to celebrate rural resilience while simultaneously consolidating power and resources in the hands of corporate giants.
True regenerative agriculture—the kind practiced by real farming families—necessitates pasture access, biodiversity, humane treatment of animals, and a financial ecosystem in which independent farmers can thrive. Yet, these farmers are forced to compete against heavily subsidized industrial operations that can now falsely label themselves as “regenerative” no matter how they manage their animal welfare practices.
Nationwide, regenerative ranchers, pasture-based dairies, higher-welfare hog producers, and diversified small farms are exemplifying what a healthier, more resilient U.S. food system can achieve. There is a clear consumer demand for this transformation, and states are increasingly supporting it. Rural communities rely on it. Nonetheless, the USDA continues to endorse factory farming as the American norm and now erroneously labels it as the new standard for regeneration.
If this administration genuinely seeks to support American farmers, the course of action is clear.
Stop asserting that industrial operations are regenerative when they are not. Cease advocating for federal legislation that restricts states and neglects small producers. Halt the distribution of billions to industrial livestock giants while merely offering crumbs to those genuinely invested in regeneration. Prioritize the voices of independent farmers fighting against consolidation, rural communities coping with industrial expansion, and consumers calling for humane treatment of animals.
A healthy America necessitates actionable, bold regenerative policies—not mere branding. We invite Secretary Rollins to champion such policies.
