The US Department of Agriculture has directed all national Research and Promotion Boards, the commodity checkoff programmes funded by mandatory producer, handler and importer assessments, to terminate support immediately for environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks and for net-zero or climate-neutrality initiatives that impose costs, restrictions or commitments on producers or processors beyond what the statutes require, Michigan Farm News reported.

The instruction came in a memorandum sent on Thursday to the chief executives, chairs and members of the boards by Dudley Hoskins, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. The move, the memo said, is meant to align the programmes with the administration's priorities favouring agricultural production, producer profitability and "freedom from ideologically driven mandates".

"Mandatory producer, handler, and importer assessments must support promotion, research, and nutrition education that expand markets and demand for agricultural commodities," Hoskins wrote. They "should not underwrite" ESG, net-zero or climate-neutrality initiatives that add non-statutory costs. The Agricultural Marketing Service is to ensure that no research and promotion funds advance such mandates or reporting burdens, and that board activities stay within authorised promotion, research and consumer-information functions.

In a separate letter to National Dairy Board chair Lolly Lesher, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins listed Dairy Management Inc. initiatives the department regards as ESG activity: mandatory Scope 3 greenhouse-gas accounting by dairy producers, the US Dairy Materiality Assessment, the US Dairy Net Zero Initiative, Pathways to Dairy Net Zero, the Greener Cattle Initiative, the Sustainability Alliance, the US Dairy Stewardship Commitment, mandatory participation in the FARM Environmental Stewardship programme, and the 2050 environmental stewardship goals in so far as they involve ESG commitments or greenhouse-gas intensity campaigns.

"Producer dollars should serve producers. Period," Rollins wrote on X, saying dairy farmers pay checkoff assessments to build demand for milk, cheese and butter and not to fund climate agendas. She described ESG as the framework used to push emissions mandates and costly sustainability requirements on American agriculture and said, "The war on cattle is OVER."

Michigan Farm News is the official publication of Michigan Farm Bureau; the report links to USDA's own announcement of the memorandum.

Source: Michigan Farm News