Permitting more fertilizer plants, Office of the Sea, fuel costs, trade deals, and labor were topics of roundtable discussion on Monday.
About 60 people attended a roundtable discussion on Monday with U.S. Department of Secretary Brooke Rollins, Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, farmers, fishermen, ranchers, government officials, and others at David Parker Farm in New Bern, NC on June 1, 2026.
After the meeting, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling held a brief press conference.
Secretary Rollins said agriculture is an $118 billion industry for the state of North Carolina with over 770,000 jobs every year.
For the first time in history, the U.S. Department of Agriculture added an Office of Seafood to recognize seafood farmers because they are “farmers of the sea,” she said.
Acting Secretary Sonderling said agriculture jobs are the backbone of the American workforce. He said they are doing everything they can “to make sure the American crop not only feeds American but feeds the world.” He said they can do that by having “the best skilled labor possible” and making sure family businesses can thrive. He talked about inspiring the youth to follow in the footsteps of the generational farms and getting more people into agriculture by working with high schools and colleges.
He said they had programs for those who need workers. He said wage rates had been increasing in the agriculture industry due to rules that were growing faster than other industries, which prevented them from hiring workers to pick crops and letting crops go because they didn’t have the labor force. He said they changed the AEWR (Adverse Effect Wage Rate) to reflect the local community in the state so there’s no longer a “one size fits all for agriculture.”
Brooke Rollins said the Make America Healthy Again movement allows them to put the farmers, fishermen, and ranchers at the center of policy in Washington, DC. She said they have 24 new trade deals and opened new markets around the world to support the farmers so “they aren’t farming for a government check, but farming for profit…”
She said Craven County has a lot of cotton and tobacco farms that have not made money in 7 or 10 years. She said they are foundational agriculture industries for North Carolina and they “see the trajectory and the future of those industries as an indicator for all row crops. But for this part of the country as a trajectory that’s going to change under this administration with our focus on profitability on bringing cost of inputs down — fertilizer, seed, fuel, interest rates, etc. – but also opening up the world to the great American products that we grow in America.”
Rollins said they will lose the country unless they solve this issue for farmers, fishermen, and ranchers.
David Parker said it meant a lot to him that the administration thinks enough of the farmers to come to New Bern to show that they are listening and willing to help them.
Secretary Rollins said the cost of inputs had been coming down since the last administration but “the Iranian conflict has caused a short blip in the increase, but the blip is coming during planting season, which is not ideal so making sure that we understand that but building for the long term. We will now be permitting more fertilizer plants than we have permitted ever in American history because we have offshored so much fertilizer, etc. over the last couple of decades.”
She also said they heard concerns over healthcare for farmers and their families and other issues facing the aquaculture industry.
By Wendy Card, editor. Send an email with questions or comments.