By now, plenty of agrifood industry folks have weighed in on the Advancing Regenerative Agriculture and Strengthening American Farm Resilience Executive Order, which President Trump signed last week.
Building on the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, the order directs federal agencies in the US to support farmers that want to shift to regenerative agriculture practices and reduce dependence on synthetic chemical inputs. It also includes directives to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to speed up registrations of newer chemical products that can replace older ones.
The executive order does not specify timing or dollar amounts for any new investment apart from the existing $700 million pilot program.
Responses to the order run the gamut from optimism and applause to warnings about hype and hollow promises.
‘The path to a healthier food supply runs directly through the soil’
Michael Pisciotta, chief strategy and commercial officer at Alabama-based biologicals company CHONEX, said the order “offers a deeper look at the need for a broader and deeper focus on soil health, biological innovation, and farm resilience,” among other things.
“The path to a healthier food supply runs directly through the soil. The MAHA Commission’s framing — that American farmers are essential partners in addressing human health— reflects a growing recognition that what happens in the field does not stay in the field. The inputs we use, the biology we support or suppress, and the inputs we apply go beyond agronomic decisions.”
With regards to the specific EPA order, Pisciotta said his company applauded directives for the EPA to prioritize the registration of alternative ingredients, and for more research into tech that reduces reliance on synthetic chemicals.
“We will be ready to help shift this narrative around biological alternatives efficacy given the threat of resistant pathogens and yield impacts associated with these challenges.”
‘A clear message’ on rewarding innovation
In a statement, Pivot Bio, which has pioneered use of microbial nitrogen to help farmers reduce their reliance on synthetic fertilizer, said the order “represents a significant step forward for science-based policy that rewards farmers who adopt innovative practices, reduces dependence on imported agricultural inputs and strengthens America’s position as the global leader in productive, sustainable agriculture.”
CEO Chris Abbott added that it “represents the kind of science-based policymaking that farmers and agricultural innovators need.”
He added: “By recognizing biological fertilizers and other advanced nitrogen management tools as creditable low-carbon practices, the USDA has sent a clear message that innovation that genuinely reduces emissions and improves farm economics will be valued and rewarded. That is exactly the right policy direction.”
‘Real investment has to be paired with real measurement’
Elsewhere, industry stakeholders highlighted the importance of not just proving regenerative technologies but scaling them.
“This executive order lands at a moment when the private sector has already done the hard work of proving regenerative agriculture works,” Alexander Gillett, cofounder and CEO of sustainability intelligence platform HowGood, told AgFunderNews.
“The pilots are done, the resilience and supply stability benefits are documented, and the question has shifted from ‘does this work’ to ‘how do we scale it.’ Federal investment in research and education is exactly the kind of support that can help take regenerative practices from thousands of acres to millions.
“What’s been missing isn’t belief in regenerative agriculture, it’s financing at scale. We’re seeing more blended finance funds pulling capital from banks, insurance companies, and corporates, and new financial products built specifically for farmers making this transition. Federal dollars aimed at research and education can de-risk that work and give lenders and insurers more confidence to move faster.”
He added: “The other piece this order can accelerate is data infrastructure. You can’t invest federal money effectively in regenerative agriculture without ground-truth data on what’s actually happening on the land, like what practices are being used, and what impact they’re having on soil, water, and farm resilience. Real investment has to be paired with real measurement, or we risk repeating the mistake of funding activity without being able to prove outcomes.”
Don’t believe the (regen ag) hype
Others pointed out that the order was signed the same day the US Supreme Court ruled that Bayer cannot be sued over state-level claims that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.
“Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more 1984: The same day the Supreme Court, backed by the Trump administration, ruled to block thousands of lawsuits against the agrochemical giant Bayer and its toxic herbicide Roundup, the White House issued an executive order on ‘Advancing Regenerative Agriculture and Strengthening American Farm Resilience,’ Anna Lappé, executive director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, wrote on LinkedIn.
She went on to call the order “laughably meaningless” and “just the latest example of how words spoken by this administration have lost all meaning. Because, have no doubt, this is the same administration that has eviscerated the very programs and policies that would do so much to support regenerative farming.”
She added: “If this administration was serious about supporting regenerative farming, it would not be slashing funding for food assistance and local food programs, cancelling hundreds of millions in grants and land-buying programs that had aided Black farmers—and so much more.
“Don’t believe these hollow words, people.”
Across the pond, Re:Source founder and former managing director of Climate Farmers Ivo Degn also highlighted the order’s timing with the Supreme Court decision. Additionally, he suggested that the order says far more about pesticides than it does about regenerative agriculture.
Breaking down the order section by section, he concluded that it “essentially puts agriculture under the health banner,” puts “precision agriculture before regenerative agriculture,” and seems to mostly be about speeding up registrations for new pesticides.
“So the executive order on regenerative agriculture doesn’t order anything substantial. Departments are instructed to review, evaluate, consider. This is a nod to the MAHA movement after the Supreme Court decision, so it doesn’t seem too incongruous.
“Friends in the regenerative agriculture space in the US, I don’t know, but there is a chance they might be using you to support their friends in the chemical industry.”
‘We are cautiously optimistic’
Jonathan Lundgrend, director at Ecdysis Foundation, which conducts grower-focused research to transform agriculture with regenerative principles, was one of four regenerative agriculture champions invited to witness the signing of the Order in person.
“This was not just a photo opportunity,” he wrote. “Amidst a small group of HHS, USDA, and Farm Bureau, a battle ensued against the resistance waged by conventional agriculture to the signing of this order, which sets a new direction for the American food system.
“The data and experiences that Ecdysis Foundation has uniquely generated was heavily influential to the President’s final decision. This EO now engages the administration’s resources into supporting regenerative agriculture on an expanded scale, as well as mitigating the human health costs of associated with conventional farming practices.
“The hope is that this will also inspire Republican legislators into supporting regenerative initiatives. We are cautiously optimistic that this first step will support our bottom-up efforts to change the culture of food in the US and globally.”
“It is good to see the government looking into the health and environmental impacts of the current food system,” Martin Goter, a regenerative producer in North Dakota,” told AgFunderNews.
“If money is going to be spent, this is an area where they will probably get the biggest return on investment. In my opinion, I would prefer to see them just stop subsidizing the current model which continues to distort the free market and support a broken food system.”
Other responses
“This Order is a welcome signal that regenerative practices and precision tools are being treated as central to farm resilience and profitability,” Gabe Sibley, cofounder of Verdant Robotics, told AgFunderNews. [Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in Verdant Robotics.]
However, he noted that “it will only truly help the ag industry if implementation reduces friction for growers and rewards real, measurable improvements in their fields rather than adding new labels or paperwork.”
Jake Joraanstad, CEO of digital grain management platform Bushel, said his North Dakota-based company was “excited to see the progress on regenerative agriculture. We’ve been involved for several years either through our products with our partners. We are focused on making it easy for farmers and agribusinesses to participate in and strengthen this initiative. The government is taking a carrot approach here vs. a stick, and right now in this challenging environment agriculture could use a lot of carrots…
From the Administration
“President Trump knows we can’t Make America Healthy Again without America’s farmers,” US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote on X.
“That’s why he signed an Executive Order directing @HHSGov, @USDA, and @EPA to scale regenerative agriculture to strengthen American farm resilience, rebuild soil health, reduce input costs, improve farm profitability, expand export markets, and support rural economies.”
In an official statement from HHS, he also said “Making America Healthy Again begins with understanding that health starts long before someone enters a doctor’s office.
“It starts with the food we eat and the way it is produced. Today’s Executive Order reflects President Trump’s commitment to working alongside America’s farmers to strengthen our food system while advancing research that will deepen our understanding of how agricultural practices, nutrition, environmental exposures, and human health are connected. America cannot Make America Healthy Again without America’s farmers.”
US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a video that the order “allows farmers of all stripes to manage soil health, adjust input dependency, and to continue to be the best stewards of their most prized asset, their land.”
“American farmers have always been our best innovators,” she said, adding that, “We are working to evaluate ways to expand the reach of that program and using existing authorities to create public-private partnerships that can bring new capacity to producers interested in adopting regenerative practices.”
The post From ‘cautiously optimistic’ to ‘hollow words,’ agrifood weighs in on the US regen ag executive order appeared first on AgFunderNews.
