Policy Priorities

  • Drive Rural Prosperity

  • Right-Size and Reorient Government

  • Generate Responsible Nutrition Policy

Download Farmers First Agenda Press Kit

The America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Farmers First Agenda is foundational to our prospective rural policy work. Uniquely crafted by individuals with real-world farming and policy experience, the Farmers First Agenda provides rural Americans with peace of mind that AFPI has their best interests at heart. AFPI is working to ensure rural America is prosperous and healthy again, which is important because our rural communities are responsible for providing a reliable, abundant, and affordable domestic food supply to our great Nation and the world.

President Abraham Lincoln once said that “no other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought as agriculture” (Lincoln, 1859).

As we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence in 2026, we are reminded that agriculture and subsistence farming are foundational to the United States, as these were primary professions at the time of our Nation’s founding. As the population expanded into the great American frontier, farmers and smallholders rose to the occasion by both fulfilling demand in the domestic market and by generating exports, especially after Industrialization. Farmers faced excruciating hardship when the Dust Bowl coincided with the Great Depression, serving as the major impetus for establishing programs that protect highly erodible soil and conserve water. Modernizations in farming techniques, along with new agricultural policies in Washington, D.C., have afforded our farmers more prosperous future decades. In a sentence: The faith, grit, adeptness, and determination of the American farmer have always carried the profession forward.

Team

Latest

Statement | July 9, 2026

AFPI Applauds USDA’s New SPUR Program for Ranchers

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s newly announced “Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers (SPUR)” program and increased funding for small and mid-size beef processors.

Op-Ed | July 9, 2026

China’s war on American agriculture has already begun

In July 2024, a customs officer at Detroit Metropolitan Airport found four baggies filled with reddish plant material hidden in the backpack of Chinese national Zunyong Liu.

Statement | July 1, 2026

AFPI Applauds Executive Order & USDA Rule Expanding Regenerative Agriculture

Statement | June 26, 2026

AFPI Minnesota Responds to 40% SNAP Error Spike in their State

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) today released a statement from Zach Freimark, executive director of AFPI Minnesota, in response to a forty percent increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reporting.

Op-Ed | June 24, 2026

Flesh-eating screwworm horror hits US cattle, but Trump’s USDA was ready to fight

The New World Screwworm (NWS) recently was found in American cattle and has gone from a threat moving northward to a near and present danger for U.S. livestock producers. The most effective tool against NWS is also one of the simplest: releasing sterile flies that mate with wild screwworms and collapse the population over time. It is a proven strategy, but it requires planning, infrastructure, and international cooperation long before a crisis reaches our border.

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