During her recent Indiana farm visit, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins spoke about government overreach of family farms. How is USDA getting involved in addressing these issues?  

“All of a sudden, this sweet little farmer from Cranberry, New Jersey became the face of government overreach,” said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, talking about New Jersey farmer Andy Henry. He faced government overreach challenges when the city wanted to turn his 175-year-old working farm into affordable housing. Rollins worked to keep Henry’s farmland as farmland. 

“I’m proud to say we were able to save that farm; the township is moving in a different direction,” Rollins explained. “The State of New Jersey working with their democrat governor, their democrat government, of course the Trump administration, I was leading the way and it was ultimately successful. But listen, we’ve got another 100, 200, 300 Andy Henry’s out there we got to go fight for.” 

Now more than ever, Rollins says family farms need protection from government overreach. 

“I tell you this is the takeaway and this is what I’m going to spend a lot of the next three years focusing on is building a machine that protects family farms like the Henry’s and the Everett’s and others from this sort of government overreach.” 

A total of about 345,000 acres of farmland was lost in Indiana between 2010-2022. Without significant change, this number will only continue to grow with time. 

(Story by Sophia Shannon, HAT intern through the West-Central Career and Technical Education program which includes high schools in Montgomery and Boone Counties)