The plan is called Project 2025, and here’s what it says:

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture should be scaled back, because “the USDA’s `client’ is the American people in general, not a subset of interests, such as farmers, meatpackers, environmental groups, etc.” (pg. 290).

• Our climate is changing. Extreme weather has been hurting farmers in the past few years. The Midwest has warmed by 1.5 degrees in the last century and floods have become more frequent to harm food production and harvests -- impacting on economic security and harming public health. Looking ahead, extreme heat, heavy downpours, and flooding will affect infrastructure, health, agriculture, forestry, transportation, air and water quality across America’s heartland. Yet Project 2025 would radically reverse climate change policies – worsening the forecast for farmers. (pp. 293, 425, 508; US Global Change Research Program).

• The GOP wants to cut back farm subsidies: “The overall goal should be to eliminate subsidy dependence” because subsidies create “market distortions.” The federal sugar program, for example, “intentionally tries to restrict supply and thereby drives up prices. The program costs consumers as much as $3.7 billion a year” (pg. 294-5).

• “Stop paying farmers twice for price and revenue losses during the same year.” Farmers can receive support from the ARC (Agriculture Risk Coverage) or PLC (Price Loss Coverage) programs and the federal crop insurance program to cover price declines and revenue shortfalls during the same year. Congress should prohibit this duplication.” (pg 297).

• Eliminate the Conservation Reserve Program: “Farmers should not be paid in such a sweeping way not to farm their land” (pg. 304).

• Shrink the Farm Services Agency that administers farm subsidy programs (pg. 310).

• The next president should help all Americans. US farm bankruptcies keep climbing; small farmers are not surviving. Project 2025 targets the poor, most vulnerable, elderly and students, including minorities. It calls for cuts to SNAP, WIC, elderly and school meals, Medicaid and Medicare, and limit access to student loans. They want a work requirement to access food stamps and tougher student loan payback penalties. That’s a plan to punish, not help, struggling farmers. (pp. 298-303; 322, 327, 330, 462-468).

• Get rid of H-2A visas. “The H-2A visa, meant to allow temporary agricultural workers into the United States […] undercuts American workers in agricultural employment. […] Congress should immediately cap this program at its current levels and establish a schedule for its gradual and predictable phasedown over the subsequent 10 to 20 years.” While the GOP and Project 2025 push a harsh clampdown on immigration, this proposal threatens farmers who already struggle to hire enough seasonal farm workers (pg. 611).

THAT’S NOT ALL….

There’s a lot more in the fine print of Project 2025 that threatens rural Americans. The GOP plan claims to help farmers and ranchers with policies that focus on extreme deregulation of safety policies in food, industrial manufacturing, animal husbandry, and foreign trade, while privatizing or cutting federal programs. But it’s like a bank or credit care loan: it may sound great at first glance, but you have read the fine print. When you do, you see the risks and possible heavy penalties.

If you’re a super wealthy, giant land or business owner, maybe you won’t be as negatively impacted, but even the 1% will suffer from extreme heat, and eat food that’s less safe, with greater exposure to pathogens from less-enforced food safety protocols.

If you’re an average American farmer, or a younger family, or are a student, or you’re part of America’s growing mosaic of diversity, Project 2025 is going to radically rewrite the rules in many areas to make it a lot harder, not easier, to get by and build a secure future.

American farmers are imperiled but Project 2025 is not the solution.