Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture | All-In DC

**David Friedberg** (0:00)
Secretary Rollins, thank you for joining me here.

**Brooke Rollins** (0:02)
Can you call me Brooke?

**David Friedberg** (0:03)
Brooke.

**Brooke Rollins** (0:04)
Okay.

**David Friedberg** (0:05)
I didn't... I'm wearing a tie. There's a degree of formality. You just came from a cabinet meeting.

**Brooke Rollins** (0:10)
I did. Food security is national security.

**David Friedberg** (0:14)
America is the largest ag exporter in the world.

**Brooke Rollins** (0:17)
These farmers don't want all these checks.

**David Friedberg** (0:20)
No one wants a handout.

**Brooke Rollins** (0:21)
Exactly. No one wants a handout.

**David Friedberg** (0:22)
$15 billion a year is spent on soda.

**Brooke Rollins** (0:25)
Taxpayer dollars will be spent on sugary drinks and junk food. It's making our kids sick. Absolutely not. Does that mean we shut them down? Does that mean? No, of course not. Part of that was having 300 executive orders drafted. We did it all very quietly. No one really knew what was happening. We're not here for the people to serve us like some monarchy. We're here to serve the people.

**David Friedberg** (0:46)
I'm here in Washington DC at the US Department of Agriculture to interview the 33rd Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins. We just had an amazing conversation talking about Brooke's background, the work she's doing at the USDA, the impact DOGE is having, food stamps, the sentiment of the American farmer, tariff and trade, and everything in between. Really amazing conversation. Thank you to Secretary Rollins for allowing me here today. I hope you'll enjoy the conversation.
What did you guys think? That was fun. Congrats on your first 100 days.

**Brooke Rollins** (1:34)
First 100 days. Yesterday was the 100th day of President Trump. I'm like 70 days. But I'm President Trump yesterday, but today we celebrated together at the cabinet meeting. We're about to go back over to the White House right after we finish to do more celebrating.

**David Friedberg** (1:47)
Great. Well, we appreciate it. The USDA is an incredible agency. It was founded under Abraham Lincoln, I believe, was established under Lincoln. I think I was talking to your staff, I think 60 percent of American workforce was in agriculture at the time. And it's a really critical agency for American prosperity and has been really important for food security and for the interest of America around the world as a trade partner, the largest ag exporter in the world. The agency is incredible in terms of the scale.
29 sub-agencies, over 100,000 employees, 4,500 locations and an over 200 billion dollar annual budget. So really an incredible department to oversee. But before we get into the USDA and talk a little bit about some of the work you're doing and have been doing, maybe we can talk a little bit about your background. Did you grow up on a farm? How did you get into agriculture?

**Brooke Rollins** (2:39)
So yes, I grew up in a really small town in Texas. We were not farmers or ranchers, per se, in Texas. I grew up on a small farm. We raised animals, we baled hay. But my family, my mom's side of the family, my grandmother, they had a big row crop farm in Minnesota. So I spent every summer on that farm, corn, wheat, soy, pretty much everything you could consider and think of. So that was my row crop, which has actually been very, very helpful because coming from Texas and being more of a cattle raiser and being in Cattlemore, which is what I'm in in Texas, it's really great to have both sides of the house and I'm very appreciative to that. But yes, grew up in a very small town. We didn't have much. I was raised by a single mom, but we did have the land. On that land, we raised our animals. Again, we build our hay. I barrel raised every Friday night. I grew up in 4H in FFA, went to Texas A&M on an agriculture scholarship, studied soil science and meats and feeds and feeding, and really dove way into agriculture. Knowing I would go to law school, I really had a heart for understanding policy and the people, but thought I would really stay in ag for the rest of my life. And obviously, sometimes the path diverts and changes. But even over the 20 years since I last worked 100% in agriculture, which was for Rick Perry when he was first governor, then quickly moved into all the policy. But I've always stayed very much in touch and involved in ag and always really worked in ag policy, but as part of a much broader portfolio until this job. But no, listen, the USDA is the people's department. That was what President Lincoln's vision was. The American founding had four key agencies, of course, the Attorney General, Justice, State and Defense, which was the Department of War at the time, but Defense. And that was really the beginning of our country were those four. Interior was added a couple of decades later, and then agriculture. That was sort of the cadence of building a new government and creating some sort of self-governing structure that you want the power to remain with the people. But certainly, as America moved from a frontier republic into, as we know, the world's greatest economic superpower, certainly you needed some kind of governing structure. And so Abraham Lincoln, in the 1860s, believed sincerely that the majority of Americans then were rural, they were agriculture related, and that they needed representation here in Washington. So the People's Department was formed, and this building was built in the early 1900s, 1920s.