WASHINGTON (DTN) -- Early Tuesday at a National Agriculture Day event in the patio of the USDA headquarters, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the launch of a national public awareness campaign to inform meat, poultry and egg producers of the "Product of USA" voluntary labeling standard, which went into effect Jan. 1.

Rollins showed a short video of rodeo performers that will apparently be used to advertise that meat, poultry and eggs sold with the "Product of the USA" label must be born, raised, harvested and processed in the United States.

Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee Chairman John Hoeven, R-N.D., praised the label and noted that he had worked on country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for many years.

The U.S. Cattlemen's Association, one of the groups promoting mandatory COOL, said on Tuesday, "This closes long-standing loopholes that allowed foreign product to be labeled in ways that misled consumers about where their food came from."

A Texan attending the event noted to DTN that the meat may be produced in the United States, but it would not be possible to produce it without immigrant workers.

PARTISAN CELEBRATION

Following the announcement of the Product of USA campaign, Rollins presided over an unprecedentedly partisan National Agriculture Day celebration.

Rollins, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler all blamed the Biden administration for farmers' troubles and said the Trump administration is improving farmers' and ranchers' lives.

Rollins said the Trump administration has reduced regulation, while the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided tax relief. She also emphasized that the deficit in agricultural imports over exports has gone down under Trump and praised the trade agreements that Trump has signed, although some farm leaders have said they still need details on the content of those framework agreements.

Loeffler said SBA has made loans in rural America and moved staff closer to borrowers.

Kennedy said that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that the Trump administration inherited from the Biden administration were written by the food industry, which has "mercantile impulses." The food industry's practices, he said, have led American kids to consume 70% of their food in the form of refined carbohydrates and ultra-processed foods and resulted in the United States having the worst health problems and highest health care costs of all industrialized countries. Kennedy said the Dietary Guidelines released by the Trump administration would make the farmers, rather than the food companies, central to improving Americans' diets.

Kennedy also praised Rollins for her cooperation with the Make America Healthy Again campaign. But at an event on Tuesday launching the Voice of the Farmer Garden on a corner of the lawn at the USDA headquarters, sugar beets and potatoes were planted and bags of Lay's potato chips produced by PepsiCo were prominently available for attendees to eat.

Near the end of the event on the patio, Zippy Duvall, president of the Republican-leaning American Farm Bureau Federation, said that in his 10 years as AFBF president, he had never seen "an administration honor this day" like the Trump administration has. But he then launched into a lengthy statement about the farmers' current troubles and need for aid.

"Right now, there is a heavy cloud hanging over rural America. It is a generational storm," Duvall said. The low commodity prices and the high costs of inputs show the need for Congress to pass more farm aid and a bill to legalize E15 gasoline year-round nationwide, he said. Noting the members of FFA (formerly the Future Farmers of America) in the audience in their blue jackets, Duvall said they "can't go back to the farm" if Congress doesn't find a solution to the shortage of farm labor.

Rollins noted that she and Loeffler are in Bible study together. Loeffler said, "With God's providence, farmers built the nation" and that the people attending the event on Tuesday will continue that tradition.

Watch a YouTube video on the National Agriculture Day announcement here: https://www.youtube.com/….

Jerry Hagstrom can be reached at jhagstrom@nationaljournal.com

Follow him on social platform X @hagstromreport

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