Key Takeaways
- President Trump signed an Executive Order on June 25, 2026, directing federal agencies to advance precision agriculture technologies, significantly increase investment in regenerative agriculture, and reduce regulatory barriers to farm modernisation.
- The EPA has been directed to prioritise registration of alternatives to older active ingredients and to review pre-harvest desiccation data to ensure alignment with safety and environmental standards.
- USDA, HHS, and EPA are directed to jointly expedite development of a research framework for cumulative chemical exposure across regulated chemical classes in the food supply, using New Approach Methodologies.
- The Secretary of Agriculture is instructed to maximise funding of the Regenerative Pilot Programme and expand it through public-private partnerships, sharing results with a broad stakeholder audience.
- HHS is directed to issue a National Institutes of Health grand prize challenge for research on cumulative chemical exposure evaluation, and to prioritise ARPA-H funding for technologies that reduce reliance on conventional chemical crop protection.
Trump Signs Executive Order to Advance Regenerative and Precision Agriculture
President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order on June 25, 2026, directing the EPA, USDA, and Department of Health and Human Services to promote regenerative agriculture practices, advance precision agriculture technologies, and reduce the regulatory burden on farmers seeking to modernise their operations. The order frames American farmers and ranchers as essential partners in the administration's Make America Healthy Again agenda, and builds on what the White House describes as a combined federal investment of over $1 billion already committed across HHS, USDA, and EPA to accelerate farm modernisation and food supply security.
The Executive Order identifies three core policy directions: promoting continued advances in precision agriculture; significantly increasing federal investment in regenerative agriculture practices, research, and education; and spurring private-sector innovation in farm modernisation by reducing red tape and strengthening public-private partnerships.
EPA Directed on Pesticide Registrations and Chemical Safety
On the regulatory side, the EPA Administrator is directed to prioritise registration actions for substances that can serve as alternatives to older active ingredients, undertaking all required human health and ecological risk assessments as expeditiously as possible. The Administrator is also instructed to review available data on registered pre-harvest desiccation uses and ensure alignment with applicable safety and environmental standards, including accurate product labelling.
A joint research mandate covering USDA, HHS, and EPA directs the three agencies to expedite a framework for evaluating cumulative chemical exposure across classes regulated in the food supply. The framework is to focus on New Approach Methodologies to improve scientific understanding of human health and environmental risks from chemical contaminants, with an explicit note that nothing in the provision requires regulatory action beyond current statutory requirements.
Regenerative Agriculture Pilot to Expand via Public-Private Partnerships
The order's most direct agricultural policy action instructs the Secretary of Agriculture to maximise funding of the current Regenerative Pilot Programme and evaluate pathways for expansion, including using existing authorities to establish public-private partnerships that bring new capacity to producers interested in adopting regenerative practices. The results of the programme are to be shared broadly with stakeholders.
HHS is separately directed to issue a National Institutes of Health grand prize challenge for researchers identifying solutions for evaluating cumulative chemical exposure, and to prioritise through ARPA-H the development of new, cost-effective technologies that reduce reliance on conventional chemical crop protection tools in order to reduce risks to human health.
The Executive Order was signed the same day that USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the final Regenerative Feedstock Rule, a separate rulemaking that creates a voluntary market pathway connecting regenerative farming practices to the US biofuel supply chain for corn, soybeans, sorghum, and spring canola.
