Conservative lawyer Brooke Rollins was confirmed Thursday as secretary of agriculture, placing a close ally of President Donald Trump into a key Cabinet position at a time when mass deportation plans could lead to farm labour shortages and tariffs could hit agricultural exports.
Rollins, who served as chief for domestic policy during Trump’s first administration, was confirmed overwhelmingly by the Senate in a 72-28 vote.
Rollins will now lead a department tasked with overseeing nearly all aspects of the nation’s food system, including standards on farming practices and livestock rearing, federal subsidies to farmers or agribusinesses and setting nutrition standards for schools and public health officials nationwide.
The Department of Agriculture was at the centre of Trump’s trade war in his last administration, when it increased subsidies to farmers growing the nation’s two biggest crops, corn and soybeans, after retaliatory tariffs were levied by China on the grains and international markets were disrupted. The United States is the world’s largest food exporter.
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