Agriculture Resilience Act of 2025
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Heinrich (for himself, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Sanders, …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Agriculture Resilience Act of 2025 sets ambitious national goals to transform American farming to combat climate change. It requires a 50% reduction in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2040. The bill creates a comprehensive framework of research programs, conservation incentives, and regulatory reforms to help farmers adopt climate-friendly practices while maintaining profitability.
Who Benefits and How
Farmers adopting sustainable practices receive significant financial incentives including crop insurance premium discounts, grants for transitioning to cover crops and regenerative practices, and technical assistance. Beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, and veterans receive priority access to many programs.
Small and medium-sized meat processors can receive grants up to $100,000 to expand local processing capacity. Land-grant universities and agricultural research institutions benefit from massive funding increases, with federal agricultural research investment set to triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040.
Renewable energy companies, composting facilities, and agroforestry practitioners gain new market opportunities as the bill promotes on-farm renewable energy, organic waste processing, and tree-crop integration systems.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Conventional farmers who do not adopt climate practices may lose competitive advantages as incentive programs favor sustainable operations. Large-scale meat processors face new verification requirements for animal raising claims on product labels.
Food manufacturers must comply with new standardized date labeling requirements using "BEST If Used By" for quality dates and "USE By" for safety dates. Taxpayers fund billions in new appropriations and Commodity Credit Corporation spending for the various programs.
Feedlot and confinement livestock operations face policy pressure to transition toward pasture-based systems, including restrictions on new or expanded waste lagoons.
Key Provisions
- Establishes national goals of 50% agricultural emissions reduction by 2030 and net-zero by 2040, with a detailed action plan developed by the Secretary of Agriculture
- Triples federal investment in agricultural research by 2030, focused on climate adaptation, soil health, and sustainable farming systems
- Creates regional climate hubs to provide farmers with science-based tools, technical support, and risk assessments for adapting to climate change
- Expands conservation programs to incentivize cover crops on 50% of cropland by 2030 and 75% by 2040, with crop insurance premium discounts for participants
- Requires standardized food date labeling to reduce consumer confusion and food waste, with a goal of 50% food waste reduction by 2030
- Establishes grants for small meat processors and new verification requirements for animal raising claims on meat and poultry labels
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Establishes national goals to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2040, while strengthening soil health, climate resilience, and sustainable farming practices through research funding, conservation programs, and regulatory reforms.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Transform U.S. agriculture to combat climate change through massive research investments, enhanced conservation programs, renewable energy integration, and reduced food waste - using a combination of incentives, grants, and expanded existing USDA programs"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Farmers and ranchers adopting climate-friendly practices (receive premium discounts, grants, technical assistance)
- Organic and sustainable agriculture producers
- Small and medium-sized meat and poultry processors (grants up to K)
- Beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, and veteran farmers (priority in many programs)
- Land-grant universities and agricultural research institutions (massive funding increases)
- Renewable energy equipment manufacturers and installers
- Composting and anaerobic digestion companies
- Agroforestry practitioners
- State and Tribal governments (soil health grants)
- Cover crop and perennial production system suppliers
Likely Burden Bearers
- Conventional farmers who do not adopt climate practices (may lose competitive advantages)
- Large-scale meat processors (new verification requirements for animal raising claims)
- Food manufacturers (new date labeling compliance requirements)
- Taxpayers (billions in new appropriations and CCC spending)
- Feedlot and confinement livestock operations (policy favors transition to pasture-based systems)
- Federal regulators (USDA, EPA, FDA must implement extensive new programs)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
- "the_corporation"
- → Federal Crop Insurance Corporation
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
- "the_liaison"
- → Food Loss and Waste Reduction Liaison of the Department of Agriculture
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- "administering_secretaries"
- → Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Health and Human Services
Note: 'The Secretary' generally means Secretary of Agriculture throughout the bill, but in Title VII Section 701-705 it means both the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Health and Human Services acting in coordination (referred to as 'administering Secretaries')
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The Secretary of Agriculture (unless otherwise specified in specific titles/sections)
An activity to produce compost from organic waste generated on a farm or brought from a nearby community, and the use and active management of compost on a farm to improve water retention and soil health
A management system that intentionally integrates trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems, including riparian forest buffers, alley cropping, silvopasture, forest farming, and windbreaks
A cultivar that is the commercially available end product of a publicly funded breeding program with intellectual property rights limited to plant patents or plant variety protection (not utility patents)
A system under which solar energy production and agricultural production (including crop, animal, or apiculture) occurs in an integrated manner on the same piece of land
A phrase on food packaging signifying the end of estimated shelf life, after which product should not be consumed (USE By)
A phrase on food packaging indicating when product quality may begin to deteriorate, but product remains wholesome (BEST If Used By)
A statement on labeling of a meat or poultry product that references the manner in which the source animal was raised (production practices, location) or the breed
A dairy or livestock production system that eliminates or reduces the quantity of manure stored in anaerobic conditions and in which animals spend all or a substantial portion of their time grazing
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology