Policy Priorities
Drive Rural Prosperity
Right-Size and Reorient Government
Generate Responsible Nutrition Policy

The America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Farmers First Agenda is foundational to our prospective rural policy work. Uniquely crafted by individuals with real-world farming and policy experience, the Farmers First Agenda provides rural Americans with peace of mind that AFPI has their best interests at heart. AFPI is working to ensure rural America is prosperous and healthy again, which is important because our rural communities are responsible for providing a reliable, abundant, and affordable domestic food supply to our great Nation and the world.
President Abraham Lincoln once said that “no other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought as agriculture” (Lincoln, 1859).
As we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence in 2026, we are reminded that agriculture and subsistence farming are foundational to the United States, as these were primary professions at the time of our Nation’s founding. As the population expanded into the great American frontier, farmers and smallholders rose to the occasion by both fulfilling demand in the domestic market and by generating exports, especially after Industrialization. Farmers faced excruciating hardship when the Dust Bowl coincided with the Great Depression, serving as the major impetus for establishing programs that protect highly erodible soil and conserve water. Modernizations in farming techniques, along with new agricultural policies in Washington, D.C., have afforded our farmers more prosperous future decades. In a sentence: The faith, grit, adeptness, and determination of the American farmer have always carried the profession forward.
Team
Latest
America First Leadership Crushes Screwworm Threat Despite Mexico’s Obstruction and Open Borders
The America First Policy Institute applauds the Trump Administration’s decisive action, led by Secretary Brooke Rollins and Texas officials, in rapidly containing and attacking the New World Screwworm (NWS) outbreak in Texas.
AFPI Releases New Report on Benefits of DGAs for Health & Farmers
Today, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) released a new Issue Brief highlighting the impact of the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Titled “Eat Real Food: How the Dietary Guidelines Help Make Americans Healthy,” the report details how the Trump Administration’s nutrition reset is aligning more than two billion taxpayer-funded meals annually with gold-standard nutritional science, emphasizing real, nutrient-dense foods like high-quality protein, healthy fats, whole milk, fruits, and vegetables.
AFPI–NM: LFC Report Shows State’s SNAP Failures Could Cost Taxpayers Up to $173 Million a Year
The America First Policy Institute's (AFPI) New Mexico state chapter released the following statement from New Mexico Executive Director Vincent Torres after the Legislative Finance Committee released its program evaluation on the state's administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP):
Updated Dietary Guidelines For Americans
No new spending - just better results. These updates focus on maximizing nutritional outcomes from existing taxpayer investments, delivering stronger health impact per dollar spent.
Eat Real Food: How the Dietary Guidelines Help Make Americans Healthy
On January 7, 2026, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., released the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 (DGAs) along with the Scientific Foundation for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a companion document detailing the underlying nutrition science (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2026). The DGAs were lauded as the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in decades, prioritizing high-quality protein, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
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