Washington, D.C. — At Department of Agriculture Secretary nominee Brooke Rollins’ Senate Confirmation hearing today, the prospective Donald Trump-appointee embraced several Big Ag legislative and regulatory priorities that would bolster corporate factory farms to the detriment of the environment, climate, small farmers and rural communities.

Among other priorities, Rollins expressed support for reversing California’s Proposition 12 with the passage of the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, which would prohibit states from adopting regulations related to agricultural products, stopping progress on everything from animal welfare and consumer protection labeling to food safety. The law would threaten sweeping deregulation nationwide, to the benefit of agribusiness and factory farms. The legislation has the support of agribusiness lobbying organizations including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Pork Producers Council, and the Farm Bureau.

In response, Food & Water Watch Senior Food Policy Analyst Rebecca Wolf said:

“Brooke Rollins is a well established Trump loyalist, ready to bow to corporate interests on Day One. Her endorsement of the EATS Act signals the dangerous pro-corporate agenda she appears ready to bring USDA, if confirmed to lead the key agency.

“The USDA has massive leverage in shaping our food system, but, as usual, President Trump appears more concerned with buoying business interests than reforming our broken system to deliver safe, affordable food. Congress must stand up to Trump’s corporate cronies and their dangerous legislation. That means stopping the EATS Act, which threatens to exacerbate consolidation in the agriculture sector and drive an archaic race to the bottom in which consumers, animals and our environment lose out to enormous profit-grubbing corporations.”