WASHINGTON — The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is cancelling its program Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC), Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on April 14.

“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” Rollins said. “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.”

PCSC was implemented in May 2023. At the time, USDA estimated 141 projects would be carried out through a $3.1 billion investment.

Over the course of five years, the projects were intended to assist producers in climate-smart production practices as well as develop climate-smart commodities.

However, according to Rollins, a line by line review of each partnership under PCSC revealed that the majority of the projects had “sky-high” administration fees. In many instances, less than half of the federal funding would go to producers.

The USDA plans to allow select projects to continue if they can demonstrate how a significant portion of the funds will go to farmers.

The Biden-era PCSC will be reformed by the new administration into the Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative, which will align with the Trump administration priorities, Rollins explained. USDA will review existing grant agreements based on the following farmer-first policy priorities:

  • A minimum of 65% of federal funds must go to producers.
  • Grant recipients must have enrolled at least one producer as of Dec. 31, 2024.
  • Grant recipients must have made a payment to at least one producer as of Dec. 31, 2024.

USDA plans to contact current partners individually to notify them about participation in the program. The agency will honor all eligible expenses incurred prior to April 13, 2025.