Department of Justice and USDA to Investigate Sky-High Farm Input Costs

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced yesterday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly scrutinize agricultural input markets – particularly, seed, fertilizer, equipment, and fuel. With the economic conditions for row crop producers falling off a cliff, the USDA and DOJ have become keenly interested in looking into why crop production input costs have continued to rise to the point that farmers are locked into steep operating losses. The Memorandum became immediately effective and includes the option to take antitrust enforcement actions to promote competition in the agricultural marketplace.

You can read more in the USDA’s press release here.​

MAHA Commission 2.0 – Making Agriculture Happy Again

On September 9, the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission (MAHA Commission) issued its Strategy report, providing recommendations for combating childhood chronic disease. Unlike MAHA’s original Assessment report, which outraged some grain commodity groups for raising questions about pesticide use, the new report earned widespread praise from most Ag groups. The Strategy report takes a somewhat lighter approach to agriculture and generally avoids criticism of any particular ag practice. Below are some of the report’s recommendations touching on agriculture:

• Agricultural Deregulation – relevant federal agencies, including USDA, FDA, and HHS will take action to reduce regulatory and bureaucratic burdens on:
  • Organic Certification
  • Community Supported Agriculture
  • Direct-to-Consumer Sales of farm products, particularly dairy products
  • Enhancing Small Farm access to credit, land, markets, infrastructure, and risk management tools.
  • Mobile Meat Processing
  • Grocery store permitting in underserved areas
• Soil Health and Conservation – USDA and EPA will partner with the private sector to incentivize voluntary participation in conservation programs and soil health
• Nutrition and Food Policy – many recommendations were directed towards federal nutrition and food policies, including:
  • Updating dietary guidelines
  • Eliminating petroleum-based food dyes
  • Establishing a definition for “ultra-processed foods”
  • Reorienting food choices in federal programs such as SNAP

Undoubtedly, the change that mattered most to agitated Ag commodity groups was the Commission’s mostly hands-off approach to pesticides. While the Report doesn’t necessarily downplay cumulative exposure risks from synthetic chemicals, pesticides are viewed more as a solution rather than part of the risk. Below are the Report’s main comments on pesticides:

• Precision Applications – USDA and EPA will prioritize research and programs that facilitate the adoption of precision pesticide applications, which would reduce overall pesticide application volumes
• Faster Pesticide Product Review – EPA’s review and approval procedures will be reformed to speed up the timeline for pesticide products.
• Common Mode of Action Pesticides – EPA will focus on pesticides with a common mode of action, although it isn’t entirely clear what, exactly, that means for product approvals or usage.
• Post-harvest Rinse & Wash Water – EPA will “more clearly define” rinse and wash water as non-hazardous to relieve the burdens on fruit/vegetable packers and handlers.
• Public Education – EPA will promote its pesticide review procedures to improve the public’s confidence in the Agency’s ability to limit pesticide risks.

MAHA’s Strategy recommendations for agriculture appear to more or less adopt a market-based approach, allowing producers freedom to operate and also leverage private sector innovations that improve production methods.

You can read MAHA’s Strategy Report here.​

Arkansas State Plant Board Forgives Five Years of Pesticide Violations

The Arkansas State Plant Board, the agency responsible for pesticide regulation and enforcement in the State, held one of its infrequent meetings on September 23, 2025, which included consideration of a sizeable backlog of pesticide violations dating back to 2017.

At the meeting, the Plant Board voted to lump together 213 outstanding cases, ranging from 2017 through 2021, for resolution by issuing a “warning letter” to each violator. While some cases involved minor violations, a considerable number were classified as “egregious,” meaning that those cases were subject to fines as high as $25,000. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency previously indicated that it was not in favor of the Plant Board simply dismissing the case backlog with a simple warning. Nonetheless, the Plant Board approved all of the cases for closure with “warning letters.”

Many of the old cases involved the use of dicamba herbicide, a herbicide that caused an enormous surge in complaints to the Plant Board beginning in the 2017 crop season and continuing in subsequent seasons. The unprecedented wave of pesticide complaints, largely resulting from an enormous increase in dicamba use for dicamba-tolerant crops, overwhelmed the Agency. Also, significant political pressure from dicamba proponents complicated the Board’s enforcement efforts to investigate the wave of complaints, which included lawsuits that successfully dismantled the Board for a period of time.

While the Board will lose fine monies, some of the biggest losers are the citizens who believed their complaints would be investigated and taken seriously, as well as the Board’s staffers who were harassed, threatened, and bullied when they attempted to investigate. By essentially taking no action to prosecute these violations, the Plant Board risks becoming merely a paper tiger with no teeth.