Project 2025's Goals for Agriculture

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is a presidential transition project to set the country on a path that resists leftist values. The goal is to promote the nuclear family, all states' self-governance, improve our military, and protect our “God-given” constitutional rights. Section 3 is titled “The General Welfare” and starts off with the goal of managing our national debt. It immediately discusses medicare and medicaid reform, as the authors know it is a hot topic. The author, Daren Bakst, is a Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment at the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports the implementation of conservative policy. They have funded this entire report.

The Project's Goals For Agriculture:

The first part of section 3 discusses the Department of Agriculture. Bakst asserts that the USDA’s role in food regulation is too large, and it can no longer do what it was designed for, so it should focus on instead removing barriers to food production. He claims their mission has been too broad, and systematic racism or environmental protection should not be one of their worries. The USDA needs to concentrate on cheap food production, and the best way to support that system. 

Bakst gives us recommendations for sustainable development, with the first being the removal, or reformation, of conservation programs. The policy that allows farmers to be paid if they preserve their land is specifically mentioned as needing deletion. The Forest Service Wildlife Management should also be revised, and their duties should be tailored towards tree removal because increased timber sales are an opportunity to help the economy, and less trees means less to burn. 

Subsidies should be completely amended to eliminate their dependence and permanent easement should be removed. The Commodity Credit Corporation should be further limited, and shouldn’t have been used during the pandemic, since it opened the door for abuse and fraud. It should only be used for emergencies not described in existing programs. Furthermore, Bakst wants to limit the funding farmers can receive by prohibiting the ability to receive subsidies and insurance for lost crops. Project 2025 claims that we can advance food production by removing obstacles that limit genetically engineered food, because most federal regulations are “excessive”, and federal labeling should be on a volunteer basis only. The Checkoff program should also be removed. 

This department’s summary ends by emphasizing solutions Bakst claims will support low-income families. Food assistance programs like SNAP and WIC will be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services, and plans like the Thrifty Food Plan and Heat-and-eats will be revoked, as they are loopholes that allow citizens to get more money than they need in assistance. There will be stricter eligibility requirements, as well as work requirements implemented. The report also states that we should “reject efforts to create universal free meals (302)” because helping everyone other than low-income students is a waste of taxpayer money.