E62: Homesteader AJ Richards Talks Ag Policy with USDA Secretary
By Homesteaders of America
PermaNews Brief
Key Takeaways
A homesteader shares insights on agriculture policy from inside discussions with the Secretary.
- Homesteaders are influencing agricultural policy decisions.
- Public land grazing faces new regulatory frameworks.
- Understanding sourcing labels requires deeper analysis.
- Regenerative agriculture initiatives are evolving slowly.
- Direct meat purchasing could simplify consumer-producer relationships.
Why It Matters
Homesteaders' perspectives are increasingly vital in shaping food policies and local agriculture.
What to Do Next
Listen to the podcast for deeper insights into agricultural policy.
Permaculture Context
What AJ Richards' presence in that room signals is something worth sitting with: the policy conversation is finally porous enough for people with dirt under their fingernails to walk through the door. For permaculture practitioners and regenerative growers, this matters less as a political story and more as a systems story. Federal agricultural policy has long been shaped by commodity-scale thinking — inputs, outputs, acreage, yield — categories that make small-scale polyculture and closed-loop homestead systems essentially invisible to regulators. A memorandum of understanding between USDA and Interior on public land grazing sounds bureaucratic, but the underlying shift — toward recognizing that land stewardship and land use are not opposites — is precisely the conceptual ground regenerative practitioners have been trying to establish for decades. If you're building a resilient food system at the household or community scale, the practical takeaway is this: the window for direct producer relationships, transparent sourcing, and locally-grounded food networks is opening, not closing. Now is the time to know your farmer, formalize those relationships, and stop outsourcing your food security to supply chains that were never designed with your resilience in mind.
Recommended for: Individuals interested in agricultural policies and their community impact.
AJ Richards is back, and this time he's taking us inside the room with the Secretary of Agriculture. He's not a lobbyist. Nobody's paying him to be there. He's a homesteader from Cody, Wyoming who got invited because he was loud about our failing food system, and he's telling us what's really going on with public land grazing, the regenerative agriculture executive order, and why country of origin labeling isn't as simple as everyone thinks.AJ lives on seven and a half acres in Cody, Wyoming, but his family's roots go back to 1916, when they homesteaded the Arizona Strip as part of the Bundy Ranchers. He's also the founder of From The Farm, a platform built to connect consumers directly with producers. Since last fall, he's been part of a small group the Secretary of Agriculture personally invited to Washington to represent Western ranchers who felt unheard. In this episode, he and I get into what's actually moving in DC right now, why some of the loudest online criticism misses the point entirely, and why he believes prayer and discernment matter as much as policy.What You'll LearnWhy yelling at the Secretary of Agriculture over country of origin labeling might be aimed at the wrong person entirelyWhat a new memorandum of understanding between USDA and the Department of Interior means for ranchers grazing on public land, after decades of losing groundThe real story of how the regenerative agriculture executive order came togetherWhy AJ says “two things can be true at once” about the wins and the compromises coming out of this administrationWhat the Direct Act could mean for buying meat straight from a farmer online, even across state linesWhy taking a government grant, like NRCS fencing money, almost always comes with strings you didn't expectHow AJ's family history homesteading the Arizona Strip shapes the way he sees today's food fightWhy “empathy up” matters as much as empathy for the people below youWhat AJ wishes Christians would post instead of tearing down l
Source: podcasters.spotify.com
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