The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy is about policy. Our work centers on how public institutions and policies can reshape food, farm and trade systems for the good of people and the planet. For example, we document unmet demand by farmers for public conservation programs and make the case for support to be increased and redirected to meet that demand and strengthen environmental outcomes. We track what U.S. officials say in our name abroad and challenge U.S. trade and foreign investment policies to respect human rights. We scrutinize corporate claims around climate net zero and call out where they fall short of meaningful reductions to greenhouse gas emissions. We champion the use of public money to ensure the food on kids’ plates in Minnesota’s schools comes from local growers. All this policy work relies on research to fill knowledge gaps, shared platforms for collective action, and targeted interventions to improve outcomes in the public interest.
The connective tissue for IATP’s work is a systems-based understanding of how food and agriculture works, grounded in a few core principles. Those principles include a commitment to evidence, public accountability and human dignity.
These principles underpin our defense of farmers and rural communities. They underpin our solidarity with food and farm communities from around the world. They guide our understanding of what the public interest is, and how we should defend it.
The next four years pose a challenge to our mission. The challenge is not just that we disagree with the incoming administration on policy. We certainly do but that is a challenge we have faced under many administrations. What is new is the open assault on our principles.
1.) IATP is an evidence-based research organization. Science is not the only ingredient in good policy, but it is fundamental. It is necessary if not sufficient for good outcomes. The incoming administration, however, has shown itself to be contemptuous of facts. One example is the widespread denial of climate change among the incoming officials. Under his previous administration, President Donald Trump gagged public scientists and banned public discussion on several important of issues, including climate change. Vital data previously available to the public was taken offline. President-elect Trump is widely expected to again withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. The economic policies proposed by the incoming administration display a wide range of incompatible ideas, including keeping the dollar strong, interest rates low, tariff barriers high and inflation down. Loyalty demonstrably counts for more than experience or expertise in the new Cabinet.
2.) Public accountability is in question. The incoming administration includes nominees whose proposed government positions will create flagrant conflicts of interest. The nominated Cabinet includes no less than ten billionaires. Some hold government contracts. Others would gain regulatory control of the sectors their wealth depends upon. The last two months have displayed a new extreme of transactional politics, with an open exchange of cash and favors for political influence, both from U.S. and foreign interests.
3.) Human dignity is under attack. The UN Declaration on Human Rights, a convention to which the United States is a party, summarizes the principle this way: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The United States has a long and unhappy history of failing to respect human equality, yet the principle has been a lodestone, pushing the country to do better. The incoming administration stands against that push. The proposal to deport millions of immigrants is a scandal. It shows no regard for the economic chaos this would cause, nor, more profoundly, for the human misery that would result.
This context does not change IATP’s mission. But it does make it more important than ever to be vocal (and smart) in defense of our principles. We will continue to ground our analysis in science and systems thinking, and to produce compelling, accessible educational resources. Already we are talking with partners about what materials they need for their constituencies, many of which are largely rural.
Facts may not sway the new administration, but they remain essential. IATP will continue to communicate the realities of climate change, explain how tariffs actually work, and share the findings of our evaluations of the effectiveness of connecting Minnesota’s infants and children with local and sustainable food markets. State governments will have a large role to play in the coming administration, and Minnesota food and agriculture organizations have strong relationships with legislators that we can use to keep pushing the just transition to more just and less polluting food systems.
The bedrock of democracy is accountability. IATP will continue to challenge false claims by corporations and to insist on third-party verified, science-based standards for climate action. Given how slow the country has been to act since the global climate treaty was signed over 30 years ago, we can be grateful the U.S. is not the only place setting standards for climate accountability. And states continue to provide leadership in the face of reality-denying federal policy.
The priority is to become stronger allies to the frontline organizations protecting food and farm workers, so many of whom are undocumented. The lack of legal protection and respect for workers in U.S. food systems, from the field to the packing plant, to the restaurant kitchen, has persisted for decades. Even where there are formal legal protections in place, they are too rarely enforced. We will continue our work to support public food purchasing policies that protect workers’ rights and look for opportunities to uphold the rights of those who are threatened directly with deportation. We will look at where and how we can best support essential work for better enforced and stronger laws to protect decent work for all, American citizens or not.
There is excellent work in the U.S. to build on. There is hope and power in sharing the work ahead. The coalitions and social movements from which we learn and in which we participate are foundational to IATP’s engagement in the world. That learning and engagement spans from Minnesota across the world, wherever people fight to protect and promote the public interest. We will not be silenced, and we are not alone.
