USDA–Department of War announce coordination on national security

Last week, Secretary Rollins and Secretary Hegseth signed an MOU formalizing coordination between USDA and the Department of War (DOW) to implement the National Farm Security Action Plan. The MOU focuses on three activities for coordination:

1. Promote agricultural and economic prosperity
2. Defend the foundations of agriculture and food
3. Strengthen domestic agricultural productivity

One of the first actions of the USDA-DOW MOU was to create a partnership between the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The stated goal of the MOU is to advance technological innovation to safeguard and defend America’s food system from deliberate attack, naturally occurring threats, national emergencies, and natural disasters. The MOU specifically called out collaboration between USDA and DARPA's Biological Technologies Office (BTO) "Ag  x BTO" program to identify opportunities to award up to $1 million for seedling research projects.

Finally, USDA also announced the creation of the Office of Research, Economic, and Science Security (ORESS) within the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist to coordinate research security efforts across the entire USDA research enterprise.