By Brooke L. Rollins

Ever since Colorado was admitted to the union 150 years ago this month, farmers and ranchers across the state have kept our nation’s food supply secure and our freedom alive. From cattle ranchers on the eastern plains to specialty crop producers on the Western Slope, Colorado is home to more than 36,000 farms spread across more than 30 million acres.

Last week, I saw the tremendous effect of agriculture in the Centennial State firsthand as, along with U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, I met with Colorado cattlemen and farmers to discuss how the Trump administration is fighting to give them greater opportunities and a more prosperous future. 

That starts by empowering our farmers to compete and win on the world stage. Whereas the last administration failed to secure a single new trade deal over four years, President Donald Trump has already secured 20 new trade deals and frameworks in just 18 months. As a result, we’ve cut the projected $50 billion ag trade deficit we inherited nearly in half. Our agriculture exports are breaking records in key markets like Mexico, Korea, Colombia and the European Union. After decades of suffering under the heavy hand of foreign tariff regimes, Colorado farmers finally have a president who is leveling the playing field on their behalf.  

In addition to expanding opportunity abroad, we are also lowering input costs for producers here at home. There is still more work still to do, but thankfully, costs are coming down and are well below Biden-era highs. Despite significant global market disruptions, four major finished fertilizer products are less expensive than they were this time last year — including UAN, which is down more than 11%, and Urea, which is down more than 12%. To bring prices down further and strengthen our national supply chain, we are spearheading a whole-of-government initiative in partnership with industry to expand and onshore domestic fertilizer production. Later this month, we will break ground on what will be the largest ammonia plant by capacity in the world, right here in America. 

And thanks to Colorado leaders like Reps. Evans, Hurd, Boebert and Crank, the Working Families Tax Cuts Act President Trump and congressional Republicans enacted also delivered historic wins for rural America, including enhanced Dairy Margin Coverage, tax benefits for dairy farmer cooperatives and saving more than 2 million family farms from the death tax. 

Putting farmers first also means standing in the gap when infectious diseases and pests threaten their livelihoods. Last year we successfully launched a five-point plan to combat Highly Pathogenic Avian influenza (HPAI), bringing egg prices down by nearly 90%. We’ve applied this same aggressive approach to our work eradicating New World screwworm (NWS), alongside our state and local partners in Texas. Today, there are just four active New World screwworm cases in the United States, in large part because we’ve invested a record $1.3 billion in emergency funding to combat the pest, expanded the number of staff working on NWS by 1,000% and dispersed nearly 800 million sterile flies to prevent NWS from reproducing. 

Protecting livestock is especially important here in Colorado, where cattle and calves contribute more than $4.6 billion to the economy every year. We are working around the clock to not only keep cattle safe but to rebuild the historically low herd.  

Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plan to Fortify the American Beef Industry released last fall, we are building a more resilient food supply chain by cutting red tape, streamlining permitting, expanding support for small- and medium-sized processors and opening additional federal land for grazing. 

Sitting around the table with Colorado farmers and ranchers, I was reminded of the state motto: “nothing without providence.” Like our Founders, Colorado’s farmers and ranchers are deeply familiar with the importance of a firm reliance on providence as they work to keep us fed and our nation free. Their commitment to safeguarding America’s food supply is what makes this nation so great. When we fight for Colorado agriculture, we fight for the future of all Americans.

And that’s exactly what the Trump administration will continue to do. 

Brooke L. Rollins is U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.