A small town in Nebraska got a visit from a big player in the federal government Monday when U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins continued her tour through the state with a stop in Valparaiso, where she unveiled the first phase of a new policy focused on reinforcing small family farms.

This small farm in Valparaiso, less than half an hour north of Lincoln, has been owned and operated by the Ohnoutka family for six generations. And on Monday afternoon it served as the home base for a visit from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who unveiled the first phase of a new federal policy that is designed to beef up small family farms like this one, which the USDA says makes up 86% of all farms across the country. 

"We realize that the window of opportunity to really bring true prosperity, to save our family farms, and to put agriculture first out into the world...every day is one less day to do all of those things and it continues to be the great honor of my life to get to do this work," Rollins said in a press conference in the Ohnoutka's barn, flanked by FFA members from nearby Raymond Central High School and with a massive modern John Deere tractor as the backdrop.

Alongside other officials from the state and federal government such as Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, Director of Agriculture Sherry Vinton and U.S. Representative Adrian Smith, Rollins was in town to roll out the first phase of the Trump administration’s domestic agriculture agenda, which they’ve dubbed Make Agriculture Great Again.  

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, whether it’s passing the Big Beautiful Bill, having to do with tax policy and regulatory policy, it’s a comprehensive effort to empower businesses and individuals across American, especially families," said Smith. "Executive actions can only last the length of the administration, and certainly I know the president is interested in a legacy beyond that, so that’s why we in the legislative branch need to take up these measures."

The first pillar of this plan is the USDA's Farmers First initiative, which Rollins hinted at in a release Monday morning and then was unveiled for the first time in a handout to those in attendance Monday. It's focused on improving infrastructure, labor force and resources for small family farms like the Ohnoutka's, while working to ensure that those farms remain in the hands of those families for generations to come. 

"The first policy pillar of the Make Agriculture Great Again agenda focuses on the prosperity of small family farms, which are the heart of our communities and our nation," the handout reads. "To ensure small family farmers can start and stay in business for generations to come, USDA is placing specific emphasis on understanding the barriers to starting and keeping small family farms viable - especially for the next generation."

Farmers First is a ten-part plan, and the USDA's handout outlines those steps as follows: Streamlining and digitizing USDA application processes; Generating reliable access to credit; Providing greater access to farmland; Transitioning farms to the next generation; Providing farms with greater access to markets and infrastructure; Providing farms with affordable and reliable labor; Enhancing risk management and business planning tools; Ensuring the definition of small farm adequately captures U.S. agriculture today; Making government work for, not against, small family farms; and Providing other small farmer resources.

In a roundtable with farmers from across the state preceding Monday's policy presentation, a key message from the federal government officials was on prioritizing deregulation and dismantling of bureaucracy, theoretically tying in to the ninth item on the Farmers First agenda.

"I’ve always said that a law-abiding individual wishing to pursue the American dream shouldn’t have to face a huge bureaucracy, wait a long time through a lottery process, spend several thousands of dollars hiring attorneys, to come here legally," Smith said. "So let’s address the bureaucracy, not just in immigration, but across the federal government." 

"Regulatory work, getting government off the back of America - and for me off the back of American farmers and ranchers - is perhaps the most important thing we will do," Rollins said. "We have a promise to the American people, [Trump] was elected with the promise to make America great again, and a massive driver in that is the deregulation agenda. As bad as you think it is, and as overregulated as you think our government is, it’s ten times worse. So the opportunity is there to really return the power to the people and to return to a government of self-governance, which is what our founders envisioned."