The Trump administration will spend $700 million to encourage farmers to improve soil health as part of the “Make America Health Again” effort, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday.
Joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Administrator of Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz at a news conference in her office, Rollins said the conservation pilot program is part of a broad effort to make Americans’ diets healthier — beginning with the ground where crops are grown.
“This is a farmer-first pilot program, and it’s the first of its kind,” Rollins said. Farmers who sign up will measure their success through regular soil testing.
The initiative, which the department is branding as “regenerative” agriculture, relies on existing funds and will merge aspects of the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, officials said. Farmers will make a single application to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, they said, to cut red tape and promote a whole-farm approach to conservation practices.
