The US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. As part of the Departments review of the previous administrations partnerships, it was revealed that a majority of these projects included high administration fees which provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers. The Department is reviewing these projects as the funding could continue if it is demonstrated that a significant amount of the funds awarded will go to farmers. Secretary Rollins said, “The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers. The concerns of farmers took a backseat during the Biden Administration. During my short time as Secretary, I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity.”
Additionally, the department has overhauled the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities initiative into the Advancing Markets for Producers initiative with changes to align the existing grant agreement with 65% of federal funds going to producers, having enrolled one producer as of December 31st 2024 and that have made a payment to at least one producer by December 31st 2024.