Farmers Are Going Broke Amid Rising Gas Prices, While the Ag Secretary Profits Off Them

Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins delivers a speech from the main stage at the Farm Progress Show – September 1, 2026. Photo credit: “20260901-USDA-OC-CRL-0122” by U.S. Department of Agriculture, (Cecilia Lynch) via Flickr. Public Domain Mark. Article by Georgina Gustin. Inside Climate News – September 6, 2026.

As farmers grapple with soaring diesel and fertilizer prices and the Department of Agriculture yanks support for cheaper, renewable forms of energy, the agency’s chief, Brooke Rollins, is carrying millions in highly profitable oil and gas investments. In disclosure reports filed in July, Rollins indicated that she and her husband, Mark Rollins, an oil and gas industry executive, together hold as much as $2.5 million in fossil fuel investments. At least $1 million of that is in HKN II, a limited partnership with oil and gas interests in the Kurdistan region of Iraq; another $1 million, at least, is in Hillwood Energy New Ventures, which has interests in oil and gas operations in Texas, Rollins’ home state. […]

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