What a year!
We started the year fearful that the incoming U.S. administration would pose challenges to science and further normalize a political field in which leaders tell lies with impunity. We feared for the rule of law and the federal government’s commitment to the inalienable right of every person to be protected from the arbitrary use of state power. We feared further erosion of the institutions that make up a democracy: not just electoral registers and voting districts, but independent checks on executive and legislative power, including safeguarding institutions intended to protect the division of powers as established under the Constitution.
On no count were our fears misplaced. The U.S. ends the year poorer and more fearful. Our social safety nets have been eroded and wealth is more concentrated. We face higher levels of climate destabilization and have seen valuable medical knowledge destroyed by arbitrary and ill-informed cuts to research that had been years in the making.
All of that said, we have been fortunate at IATP. For us, it has been a time to renew purpose and resolve. We sued the federal government for the unlawful termination of our Regional and Local Foods Grant — and won. We joined with other non-profit voices around the state to defend the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Development (MISA) against dissolution in the wake of the huge funding cuts to universities triggered by federal government funding cuts to public research.
The President came out early in his administration with an extraordinary announcement of higher tariffs based on logic no one could explain. Tariffs have since jumped up and down by country and product, creating huge uncertainty across many markets and increasing inflation. We spent time this year trying to make sense of the mayhem, and putting forward the case for predictability and respect for trade partners. In that vein, we worked with Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. partners on our proposal for the review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or the USMCA.
We co-led a global expert team in drafting a new model treaty for agriculture trade that is now out for comment and debate. We authored a chapter for the second edition of the Land Gap Report to show how trade rules for agricultural commodities interfere with governmental obligations to protect the right to food.
We continued to track and push back on false climate solutions, including global carbon markets and risky, unproven technologies, and to push for real solutions, like strong climate disclosure rules. We published a scorecard of major meat and dairy companies’ climate related risk and emissions reporting.
We tracked the gutting of USDA staffing and program funding, and wrote on what could be next for the Farm Bill — the legislation that has shaped 90 years of markets and public spending on farming, food, and land use.
We tracked food and climate issues through a tumultuous year of abrupt policy changes in Europe, continuing to argue against the expansion of carbon markets and pushing for more accountability from big meat and dairy processors. We expanded our work on agroecology: in Minnesota we started surveying farmers to learn more about climate resilient practices, nationally we tracked high farmer demand for on-farm conservation practices, and in global work we focused on seeds and intellectual property rights. We fought for, and won, increased funding for Minnesota’s local procurement for Farm to Kids programs, despite a much harder year than predicted as federal funding cuts started to take effect. The network we house, the MinneAg Network, now has a new logo and new agriculture policy resource materials in four languages!
We are looking forward to a busy 2026! Already in the works is a new podcast series focused on agroecology. We will start reporting out the findings from our research with the University of Minnesota on climate resilient practices on smaller-scale Minnesota farms. We’ll publish the final version of the model trade agreement for agriculture. We will update and expand our Meat and Dairy Emissions Dashboard and assess how farm conservation programs have fared under the Trump administration. We’ll be tracking the renewal of USMCA and building out some new work on climate and financial risk tools. In Europe, we will keep advocating for meaningful agriculture targets within a just climate transition framework, and globally, we will be exploring the idea of cooperative self-reliance and working with international partners on better policy ideas for the problems that cannot be solved locally or nationally.
For better or worse — sadly, mostly for worse — 2025 kept us busy. We are grateful to the foundations and individual donors who saw the value of our work and supported us through the turmoil. Yet with all the challenges, we remain steadfast alongside our coalitions near and far in building a stronger, more sustainable future for our food.
