In a post-Biden era, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has worked hard to build back the trust between the country\u2019s unsung heroes \u2014 farmers and ranchers \u2014 and Washington, DC, emerging as a strong advocate for rural America and its key industries while collaborating with fellow cabinet members.<\/p>\n
Breitbart News spent a day with Rollins as she conducted U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) business at the agency\u2019s headquarters, the White House, in meetings with members of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), and while riding through the middle of D.C. on a tractor.<\/span><\/p>\n On the last Friday of March, the secretary began her busy morning by speaking to AFBF state presidents and other representatives from around the nation in a conference room on Capitol Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins (Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI feel this job every day, and it is the greatest honor of my life,\u201d Rollins began her remarks. \u201cNothing will ever \u2014 no matter what comes next \u2014 will ever come close to this moment in time of what God has called us to do; to save America, to save rural America, to ensure that our children and our grandchildren have the same America that we all grew up in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI believe so sincerely that when we walk out in a little under three years from now, [and] hopefully hand off all the hard work and good working infrastructure that was built to a similarly-minded team, that we will look back at this moment in time and say it was hard, it\u2019s tough in farm country, but we were able to reverse the trajectory of the future of America,\u201d Rollins continued. \u201cNot just agriculture, but the future of our country, because of what we \u2014 and I don\u2019t mean me or my cabinet or the president \u2014 we all together, everybody is doing right now to make it so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sharing how she brought<\/a> up the war-related <\/span>fertilizer price-surge<\/span> at President Donald Trump\u2019s cabinet meeting the day before, she told the AFBF representatives, \u201cI don\u2019t think that agriculture has ever been perhaps spoken about as much as it has in the last year in this White House and cabinet meetings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While going over some positive updates, Rollins told the farmers and ranchers that there is still much work to be done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the last year, we were able to bring fuel down. Labor\u2019s come down about 40 percent for those who are participating in the labor programs. We\u2019ve made some good progress, but there\u2019s still so much to do,\u201d she said. \u201cSo that\u2019s a really, really big piece of this \u2014 especially as you all and whom you represent are operating on such thin margins. We get that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCorn and wheat and dairy [are] expected to be up, export-wise, 25 percent this year [\u2026] There is good news, but also I will never, ever shy away from or not fully recognize the fact that there still is so much work to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When the floor opened up for the representatives to speak, Colorado Farm Bureau (CFB) President Carlyle Currier stood up to tell the USDA chief some of his state\u2019s concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n Colorado Farm Bureau (CFB) President Carlyle Currier (Breitbart News)<\/p>\n Despite being dangerously low on time before she was expected to meet with Vice President JD Vance, Rollins engaged in a lively conversation with Currier and immediately offered to continue direct communication to resolve his issue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She finished her remarks with \u201cGod bless you all\u201d before being whisked off to the White House for her closed-door chat with Vance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n USDA staffers then took Breitbart News and a group of visiting family farmers from Oklahoma, Kentucky, and other states across town to tour the agency\u2019s gargantuan headquarters, which was once the largest building in the world and remains the only federal agency that sits along the National Mall.<\/span><\/p>\n A passionate special adviser showed off the miles of extensive hallways dedicated to biology and research, describing how public service and science go hand-in-hand at the department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n USDA (Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Like other federal agencies, the building features portraits of the sitting president and the secretary that greet employees on their way into work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rollins\u2019 personal office was a testament to her passions, with countless pictures of her husband and four children and mementos from her accomplished career in public policy and service.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When she returned from the White House, she sat down in her office for an interview with Breitbart News, which quickly became an animated conversation that revealed her close relationships with key figures in the agriculture industry, her colleagues in the Trump administration, and how serious the backlog of issues left behind by the Biden administration was.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Reflecting on how her rapport with farmers has grown since she was first \u201cunexpectedly\u201d picked for the job by Trump, Rollins said she was pondering it while speaking to the AFBF crowd earlier that morning.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n USDA (Breitbart News)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was thinking that as I was standing up there. I spoke to that exact same group a year ago, and I was an unexpected choice for this job \u2014 both from my perspective and theirs,\u201d she said. \u201cI was an unknown.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Former Texas Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) had been the Agriculture secretary under both the Obama and Biden administrations, so he had 12 years of experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I have an [agriculture] background, but I had never farmed before,\u201d Rollins said. Her early life \u201crevolved\u201d around Future Farmers of America (FFA), livestock shows, and rodeos, according to her January 2025 confirmation <\/span>statement<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLast year, I\u2019d only been in the job for maybe a month, and I hadn\u2019t really met them all,\u201d she continued of her relationship with the Farm Bureau. \u201c[I] was trying to kind of feel my way how to best spend my time. I think I was very well received. They were glad I was there, but it was very different than today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With over a year under her belt as the Trump administration\u2019s top dog on agriculture, she said she has built a much stronger bond with the AFBF.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToday, I felt like you could feel the love [and] the appreciation,\u201d Rollins stated. \u201cThey kind of know me now. They know how hard we\u2019re working and how I\u2019m doing everything I can \u2014 20 hours a day \u2014 to do as much as I can in these four years as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Even during \u201chard times\u201d in the farm economy, the secretary said she still feels \u201cpositive support\u201d from those who make up the backbone of the U.S. food and fuel industry.<\/span><\/p>\n Noting her warm interaction with the CFB president, Breitbart News asked, \u201cIs that a typical way that you would handle issues or concerns brought to you by different states and different farmers? Do you like to talk to people directly?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYeah, to probably the great frustration of our team, even though they\u2019re very wonderful about it,\u201d Rollins joked. \u201cThey\u2019re like \u2018Brooke, you have to stop giving your cell phone number to everyone.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of her staffers laughed, exclaiming, \u201cWe work it into our day!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rollins said she much prefers talking to actual farmers than lobby groups and big donors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really do any of the cocktail parties or the dinners. I don\u2019t meet with lobbyists. Rarely meet with DC trade associations. They get meetings, they have access \u2014 but my time, what I have discerned, is so much better spent with the actual people on the ground, like the gentleman you were talking about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Instead of the fancy shindigs, she said she has spent a large chunk of her time working with the USDA\u2019s internal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team to shrink the <\/span>massive waste <\/span>amassed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0under former President Joe Biden.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t give enough credit to Elon Musk, who I still am in contact with today, and to the DOGE team that came in,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cI know some of the other agencies weren\u2019t as excited about it. I believed it was one of the greatest, most fortunate things that happened to us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If President Donald Trump had not been reelected after four years of former President Joe Biden, she stated, \u201cI don\u2019t know that we would have ever been able to stop and uncover \u2014 to the tune of billions of dollars.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI mean, there was a grant that went to someone in Iowa that was studying how racism had affected the pest industry \u2014 like it was crazy, crazy stuff,\u201d she highlighted as an example.<\/span><\/p>\n A recent major initiative rolled out by the USDA is the <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Product of USA<\/span><\/a>\u201c<\/span> program, aimed at promoting \u201cclear standards for origin claims\u201d on meat, poultry, and eggs.<\/span><\/p>\n With this new project, ranchers can voluntarily mark their products with specialty labels if their animals were exclusively born, raised, harvested, and processed in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n According to Rollins, she had been hearing frustration from ranchers over American consumers being duped into buying beef or chicken that they thought was local, but was actually from overseas.<\/span><\/p>\n Product of USA \u201cis our first of what will hopefully be many steps to begin to rebuild the American cattle herd,\u201d she said, noting that she would like to spread it to produce as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere are only a few things that can\u2019t grow or be produced here. America is the richest in bounty, in soil, in weather, all of the above,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut through the years, as there\u2019s been consolidation and vertical integration, we\u2019ve begun to see the loss of the American farmer and rancher.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBobby Kennedy was the first to say it, and I stole it \u2014 that the farmer and the rancher truly are the center to Make America Healthy Again. So, Product of the USA is a step in the direction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rollins pointed out that the establishment media did not believe that she and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have a positive working relationship when they first began leading their respective agencies \u2014 but that could not be further from the truth, <\/span>according<\/span><\/a> to both of them.<\/span><\/p>\n During Rollins\u2019 interview, two women quietly entered the office and took a seat at the coffee table, listening to the secretary\u2019s reflections and anecdotes with soft smiles on their faces. At the end of the chat, Rollins introduced them as her mother and sister who were visiting from out of town.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Her mother also happens to be Texas state legislator Helen Kerwin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When asked how proud she was of her daughter, Kerwin said, \u201cVery!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While the interview was scheduled to be just 15 minutes, Rollins never glanced at the clock as the conversation flowed to the half-hour mark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There was finally a hard stop when Rollins again had to be whisked off to the White House, this time for an agriculture event with President Trump and hundreds of farmers gathered on the South Lawn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Colorado](\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2026\/04\/podium.jpg\")
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