Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a series of listening sessions across the country to discuss an update to its data collection process. Rollins said the farmer response to USDA reports has steadily declined, and the agency has failed the American farmer. RRFN asked how this update will work within the Agriculture Department’s reorganization process. She credited the aftermath of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “The technology geniuses and others that came in with Elon all went back to the private sector for the most part after that ended a year ago,” explained Rollins. “I asked our DOGE team to stay and help us rebuild all of this technology because we’ve got really great, wonderful people working in technology in the government, but they are not world changers; they are not Elon Musk technology innovators.” Rollins described this as a once-in-a-government’s-lifetime opportunity to update USDA’s technology. The first listening session on data collection was at FarmFest. Similar sessions are planned throughout the country, including at Dakotafest later this month.
