USDA Cancels Biden Era Climate Slush Fund, Reprioritizes Existing Funding to Farmers

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April 14, 2025

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(U.S. Department of Agriculture) U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins today announced the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC). Following a thorough line by line review of each of these Biden era partnerships, it became clear that the majority of these projects had sky-high administration fees which in many instances provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers. Select projects may continue if it is demonstrated that a significant amount of the federal funds awarded will go to farmers. We continue to support farmers and encourage partners to ensure their projects are farmer focused or re-apply to continue work that is aligned with the priorities of this Administration. With this action, USDA is cutting bureaucratic red tape, streamlining reporting, lowering the paperwork burden on producers and putting farmers first.

Additionally, we have reformed and overhauled the Biden-era Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities initiative into the Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative, and the USDA has identified changes to align the initiative with current Trump Administration priorities. USDA will review existing grant agreements based on three Farmer First policy priorities:

A minimum of 65% of federal funds must go to producers;
Grant recipients must have enrolled at least one producer as of 12/31/2024; and
Grant recipients must have made a payment to at least one producer as of 12/31/2024.

“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” said Secretary Rollins. “The concerns of farmers took a backseat during the Biden Administration. During my short time as Secretary, I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity.”

USDA will contact current partners individually to provide information about their future participation. USDA will honor all eligible expenses incurred prior to April 13, 2025. This reform effort will utilize existing funding, with no new funding made available for these partnerships. READ MORE

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USDA Reboots Biden-Era Climate Program: USDA Rebrands Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities to Align With New Priorities (DTN Progressive Farmer)
USDA cancels Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Excerpt from DTN Progressive Farmer: USDA on Monday announced the department is repackaging the $3.1 billion Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program with the 135 or so conservation programs continuing under a new name if grant recipients ensure the bulk of their funds flow to farmers.

USDA stated the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities underwent a "thorough line by line review" of the individual contracts and, "It became clear that the majority of these projects had sky-high administration fees which in many instances provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers."

USDA stated projects will go forward if they "align the initiative with the current Trump Administration priorities."

USDA did not provide details on its review of the grants but stated the department's work led to the partnership being "reformed and overhauled" into a new program. With that, USDA will rename the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities into the "Advancing Markets for Producers" (AMP).

USDA first created the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities in 2022 with a focus on projects that promote commodities grown using practices that lower greenhouse-gas emissions or sequester carbon in the soil. The dashboard for the program remains on USDA's website, showing projects involved 102 commodities and 198 different farm practices.

When USDA initially announced the pilot project in 2022, it was going to be $1 billion, but the partnership then drew 450 project applications. The department then tripled the funding for it.

The partnership was meant as a pilot to show what practices can lower emissions but also help farmers either draw a market premium or enroll in a carbon market as well. The funding drew praise from farm groups that had coalesced under the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA). Republicans in Congress criticized USDA for using Commodity Credit Corp. (CCC) funds to focus on a climate program.

As of last June, a progress report on the partnership detailed the collective grants had enrolled more than 14,000 farmers and 3.2 million acres of working lands. The goal of the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities was to enroll more than 60,000 farmers and 25 million acres of working lands to sequester more than 60 million metric tons (mmt) of carbon dioxide equivalent.

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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has made it clear she does not support programs focused on climate change. Rollins reiterated her stance in the news release Monday.

"The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers," Rollins said. "The concerns of farmers took a backseat during the Biden Administration. During my short time as Secretary, I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity."

Robert Bonnie, USDA's undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) in the Biden administration, said his read on USDA's announcement Monday is that the Trump administration largely left the program intact with a new name. Bonnie said USDA had already placed a high priority on ensuring the bulk of funds went to producers, though some of the smaller projects may have had higher overhead costs when they began.

"I'd be very surprised if the vast majority of our projects don't meet the new requirements," Bonnie said. He added, "So my initial read is that Secretary Rollins heard from producers about how popular this program is, and they were looking for a face-saving way out and this is what they did."

Sam Kieffer, vice president of public policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said the group has long supported the goals of voluntary, market-driven programs that support farmers and ranchers while helping protect natural resources.

"We are just learning of USDA's decision and will assess the impact of these changes on growers," Kieffer said. "We are grateful the administration is focused on being there and delivering for farmers and ranchers. We also urge USDA to honor contracts already signed where farmers and farmer-led organizations may have already made investments and paid for supplies or services based on the assumption they would be reimbursed by this grant program."

Note: DTN is part of one of the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities projects, "Farmers for Soil Health," which is focused on increasing long-term cover crop adoption and creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. The partnership involves farmers in at least 19 states who grow corn and soybeans. Other participants in the project include the National Corn Growers Association, United Soybean Board, National Pork Board, National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute and The Walton Family Foundation. The project is led by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: The USDA in September 2022 announced it would invest up to $2.8 billion in 70 initially selected PCSC projects. In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the program’s launch, the agency in September 2023 indicated it was investing more than $3.1 billion in 141 PCSC projects.

Several biofuel, biogas and biochar-related projects were among those selected to receive funding. Among the awardees were Gevo’s Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program, which was awarded up to $30 million and aimed to track and quantify the carbon-intensity (CI) impact of climate-smart practices while creating market incentives for low CI corn to help accelerate production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and low-CI ethanol.

Global Clean Energy Holdings Inc. was also awarded up to $30 million for a climate-smart camelina pilot project, which aimed to measure and validate the advantages of Camelina sativa (camelina) as an ultra-low carbon nonfood renewable fuel feedstock.

In addition, Roeslein Renewables was awarded up to $80 million to support a five-year PCSC project in Iowa and Missouri. Under the project, Roeslein was collaborating with 14 public and private entities to create markets for corn, soybeans, and livestock producers through renewable natural gas (RNG) production.

The USDA has deleted its PCSC webpage, which included a full list of awardees and program summaries. Archived versions of the PCSC webpage, however, can still be found online. READ MORE