Revamping Farm Policy in America Through National Security and Modernization
- David Geiger
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
National security, farm policy, and modernization are key priorities for the Trump Administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Speaking at the morning keynote address of the 2026 Land Investment Expo, USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden spoke on some of the most important topics happening at the federal level.
Foreign Ownership of U.S. Farmland
With security as a priority, Vaden emphasized the USDA’s commitment to enforce and monitor the Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). Forty-five million acres, about 3.5%, of privately held U.S. agriculture acres are owned by a foreign country according to the 2023 AFIDA report.
AFIDA requires that foreign entities buying American agricultural land must register that ownership with the Farm Service Agency. Vaden said the Trump administration will enforce the rule with fines of up to 25% of land value for non-compliance.
“More often than not, over the past nearly 50 years, this law has been an afterthought,” Vaden said. “There haven't been that many instances of entities being fined for failure to report. And if you were to go look at the current set of regulations, you would see that it's really loose in terms of how any fine would work, reflecting the statute's relative disuse. That's about to change.”
USDA to Issue Fine for Violating AFIDA
Vaden expects the USDA will soon issue its first fine for the statue in 2026. “This calendar year, we will be enacting a new, modernized regulation to implement the Agriculture Foreign Investment Act.” he said. “And that 25% fine, if you don't register your land, is about to become all too real.”
The USDA is looking for input on the rule as it enacts modernized regulation within AFIDA. Vaden emphasized what he views as beneficial Trump Administration policy through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The law makes the estate tax exemption permanent, maintains the 20% small business tax deduction for most farmers, and allows for 100% expensing on farm equipment purchases of up to $2.5 million.
Vaden said, “All of this will help to ensure that our family farmers can spend more time worrying about their business and less time worrying about how much they're going to have to give to the federal government.”
USDA has seen significant workforce changes. Vaden explained that reorganization and modernization are key components of the current administration. He alleged massive inefficiency at USDA managed locations, with headquarters only 40% occupied while racking up over a billion dollars in needed maintenance.
USDA Reorganization
“We're not going to be running the Department of Agriculture this way anymore. That is why Secretary (Brooke) Rollins has announced a reorganization plan, which will shrink our footprint,” Vaden said.
“We're going to get it back down to the right size, where the buildings that we keep are full, and the buildings that we no longer need, like the South Building, are turned back over to the [General Services Administration], so that they can be repurposed for something better for the private economy,” he said.
Vaden said the USDA plans to move the majority of employees closer to farmers.
RELATED: Vaden explained on the American Farmland Owner Podcast in December how the USDA reorganization could better serve farmers and ranchers.
USDA Looking for Efficiencies
Criticizing local USDA offices' reliance on filing cabinets and pointing to a billion-dollar IT budget, Vaden said the agency will prioritize modernization as well. The USDA will eventually integrate the Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency, and National Resources Conservation Service systems.
“[The USDA is] integrating our systems through preferred content providers, the same ones that the big companies use for their own IT solutions,” Vaden said.
He added, “And at the end of this, we are going to have a system where, instead of going into an FSA office and opening a filing cabinet and pulling out a bunch of manila folders that you have to look at the documents within, you can sit at home, look at your own computer, pull up your file as a farmer, and be able to see each of these agencies, your dealings with them, what your current status of it is, and take care of it from home. That just makes common sense.”
Vaden claims this will save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, adding there is already a beta model of the system being tested.
