No More Cash Cow: USDA Cuts Off Dairy-Funded ESG Projects
Dairy-checkoff dollars are going back where they belong: Promoting milk, not underwriting ESG and the climate-industrial complex.
It appears that America’s dairy farmers have been milked to finance someone else’s climate agenda.
That fleecing is ending as the Trump administration continues to cull Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) from American policy.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has announced that USDA is ending dairy checkoff funding for ESG projects, including greenhouse-gas and net-zero initiatives pursued by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins reaffirmed the Administration’s commitment to American farmers, announcing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decisive action to end dairy checkoff funding for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) overregulation. This action aligns research and promotion activities with the Department’s priorities and the original mission of the checkoffs. USDA remains committed to ensuring that every dollar collected from American producers serves American agriculture for the better.
“American dairy producers, cattle ranchers, and farmers pay checkoff assessments so those dollars can build demand for their products – not bankroll radical climate agendas that raise costs and constrain production,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. “Today’s action returns the Dairy Checkoff and all research and promotion programs to their core mission: expanding markets and supporting the hardworking men and women who feed this country. We will not allow producer dollars to underwrite mandates that put American agriculture at a disadvantage.”
The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, created through the checkoff program, apparently has undertaken extensive ESG initiatives, and the Agricultural Marketing Service has been directed to evaluate the other 21 programs.
The agency identified several initiatives as supporting ESG activities, including Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Environmental Stewardship, participation in Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting, the U.S. Dairy Materiality Assessment, U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative, Pathways to Dairy Net Zero, Greener Cattle Initiative, Sustainability Alliance and the U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment.
The letter noted that “other initiatives may also be misaligned with departmental policy,” and directs the Agricultural Marketing Service to evaluate the other 21 programs.
Dairy Management Inc. administers the dairy checkoff and has said it will comply with the directive.
The organization told DTN it would review projects and take the necessary steps to modify or terminate contracts and activities.
RealClearEnergy contributor Samantha Fillmore noted that Rollins highlighted the programs, Pathways to Dairy Net Zero (P2DNZ), a disastrous nongovernmental ESG initiative that targeted the dairy industry.
The report analyzes the effects of multinational nongovernmental ESG organizations like Pathways to Dairy Net Zero. From the large-scale analysis of how ESG mandates function, to the actual impact American Dairy emissions have on global emission standards, to food security and disruptions in the U.S. food supply, and foreign adversaries and competitors.
The USDA joined P2DNZ at COP26 in 2021 during the Biden administration under then-Secretary Tom Vilsack. Since then, participation in the cancerous ESG agenda has been grandfathered in.
On September 3, 2026, the report was sent to the USDA, along with a letter from Heartland Impact and Consumers Defense urging a deeper look into these harmful legacy-ESG programs hiding in plain sight. Both organizations are grateful to Secretary Rollins and the USDA for taking such quick action, for listening to the American Dairy Farmers that inspired the report, and for protecting American agriculture.
Secretary Rollins deserves credit for putting dairy-checkoff dollars back where they belong: Promoting milk, not underwriting the climate-industrial complex.
A broader review of commodity programs may reveal just how deeply ESG orthodoxy has curdled agencies meant to serve American agriculture.
For farmers compelled to pay these assessments, ending this climate grift is not merely sound policy…it is udderly overdue.
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Comments
Now do ethanol.
Soon, please. When alcohol started being added to gasoline nearly twenty years ago, The Bride’s new ’07 car took a noticeable hit to power and efficiency. It felt like it had lost 10% of its power and gas mileage. In fact, I saw easily 2 MPG less from one tank to the next. If we must have it, make the mix 5% so we can pass a slow truck more safely.
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So buy non-ethanol gas. I use it for small engines.
Oh, they’ve been busy closing that door too.
WA State is shown as ethanol required when it’s not.
Non-ethanol gas or “Regular Gas” used to cost about 10% more than the mixed crap. You did get better mileage and increased power but had to pay more. Now the issue at hand is WHY?? How much financial impact is made to Our Nation by using ethanol? I’ve read articles that it takes more energy to produce it than it provides – a NEGATIVE! We’ve also seen the increased costs of corn related products since ethanol corn is more profitable – a NEGATIVE! We’ve all probably had the “gummed up” carbs causing repair bills or discarded lawn mowers or other small engines – a NEGATIVE! But, IOWA and VOTES! If the R’s remove Ethanol then the farmers of IWOA might vote for DEMOcrats! A decidedly NEGATIVE! Bite the bullet – end the Ethanol experiment and put corn back where it belongs – on our tables!
I think the smartest solution is the flex fuel mandate. For very little money, new cars can be made flex fuel capable, a move transparent to consumers. Then let people buy whatever fuel they want, instead of deciding what fuel they shall buy.
My 2022 F250 gets less mileage using an ethanol blend than straight gas. So far the price difference makes the drop worth it.
The Trump administration should use AI to crawl through every agency and email looking for any reference to ESG or NGO. Use AI to thwart every left wing grift.
I dairy ya to pun some more cream of the crop cheesy jokes unless you are Pasteur prime
I think this topic is moo-r serious than you think. 🐄
How about cutting payments to farmers not to farm. How about cutting all subsidies to farmers period. And yes eliminate any ethanol initiative. All that did was drive up corn prices and everything associated with corn such as cereal and tacos.
Hold on a second. Some of the “paying farmers not to farm” has been wildly successful in restoring game populations. Pull some land out of production for a year or more and paying the farmers for the loss of income has been very good.
Bout time
The entire program shouldn’t be shut down just the worst abusers that push an agenda. For example, grants made to study methods of reducing fertilizer runoff into streams or capping manure pits to capture methane for fuel. I’ve never been a fan of forcing someone to pay for anything. Why should dairy farmers have a mandatory fee they have to pay to government to promote their products? Don’t we have trade representatives to do that?
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