Op-Ed: Luke Lindberg: America will love Brooke Rollins
Brooke Rollins has a first-rate policy agenda that will Make Agriculture Great Again. Cowboy boots? Check. Rodeos? Check. The best barbecue you’ve ever tasted? Check.
Brooke Rollins is a force of nature. Her passion for agriculture and for rural America is as contagious as it is deep. She is dedicated, loyal, and strong, and she’s the right pick to serve as President Donald J. Trump’s next Secretary of Agriculture.
For the past three years, I have served as a senior fellow for the America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Center for American Prosperity — the brainchild of Brooke Rollins and an important workhorse of President Trump’s America First movement. During that time, I worked on food security, agricultural trade, and economic policy. I witnessed Brooke Rollins the visionary, Brooke Rollins the implementer, and Brooke Rollins who believes in the power of rural America. To witness this for yourself, you would need only to have attended one of AFPI’s annual policy summits in Brooke’s stomping grounds of Fort Worth. Cowboy boots? Check. Rodeos? Check. The best barbecue you’ve ever tasted? Check. What’s more? A first-rate policy agenda that will Make Agriculture Great Again.
Alongside my service to AFPI, I was also honored to serve as the national co-chair of the Farmers & Ranchers for Trump Coalition, which helped secure 70 percent of America’s rural vote for President Trump. While traveling the nation and talking with farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers, we heard you loud and clear.
Family farms and average Americans are struggling. Input-price inflation combined with flat commodity prices has erased agriculture’s already slim margins — in fact, America’s family farms lost a cumulative $29 billion this year alone. Nearly 700 million people globally face hunger, a number that is steadily increasing. Meanwhile, our farmers face a $30 billion trade deficit this year and USDA is estimating that next year will be even worse — at $45 billion, the largest on record.
America needs to course correct — and fast.
The Brooke Rollins I know has always focused on commonsense ideas — in South Dakota, we call it ‘horse sense’ — that would put American agriculture in the driver’s seat once more. Rollins will undoubtedly implement and execute President Trump’s agenda, and here are a few concepts I believe align with the spirit of Trump’s platform:
1. Feed America and the world. Make America the dominant food producer by championing innovation and strengthening domestic food supply chains. We should be able to grow and raise the food our nation needs to thrive and live healthily, and America ought to be the leader in the fight for global food security.
2. Stop over-regulating farmers. Remove Green New Deal mandates and duplicative regulatory burdens (e.g. overlap between USDA and FDA) that are devastating American farmers. The current administration has increased the cost of federal regulations for family farms by about $25,000 per year and has slowed the process of approving new innovations, leaving us less competitive vis-à-vis other nations.
3. Ensure rural prosperity. Access to broadband internet, critical infrastructure, and jobs that pay a living wage, should be available to all Americans.
4. Balanced trade creates prosperity at home and abroad. Trade agreements should fight for American agricultural producers, and our trading partners should provide equal access to their markets that they receive here in America.
5. Let Americans keep their earnings. Sensible federal tax policies, like President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allow farmers and small business owners to keep more of what they earn and align expenses with their operational goals.
This is the agenda that rural America voted for when it endorsed the greatest political comeback in history by sending President Trump back to the White House. It’s the most pro-growth, pro-farmer, and pro-America agenda of our time, and it’s an agenda that Brooke Rollins knows and would be in a position to advance when she is confirmed to her post as Secretary of Agriculture.
Like I said, you will love Brooke Rollins.
Luke Lindberg is a senior fellow in the Center for American Prosperity at the America First Policy Institute and the President & CEO of South Dakota Trade. Previously, Lindberg served as the Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer at the Export-Import Bank where he earned the Distinguished Service Award during the first Trump Administration and National Co-Chair of the Farmers & Ranchers for Trump Coalition. Lindberg serves on the board of directors of the National Association of District Export Councils, holds an advisory role with the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Lindberg earned a Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland.