The Trump administration’s nominee to a key Agriculture Department post heaped praise Wednesday on a program President Donald Trump’s right flank is looking to eliminate.
Richard Fordyce, the president’s pick for undersecretary of Agriculture for farm production and conservation, pledged at his Senate nomination hearing to work with lawmakers both Democratic and Republican to keep and improve the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers not to plant a cash crop.
The CRP, cherished by hunting organizations and others that like its long-term environmental benefits and protections for wildlife habitat, can be divisive among the conservative thinkers running the Trump administration.
Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation policy initiative that’s well-represented at the White House, recommended ending the program, saying farmers shouldn’t be paid in such a sweeping way not to farm their land.
