Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Wednesday (September 24, 2025)said she was “very excited about India, the opportunity,” a day after Washington and New Delhi wrapped up their latest round of trade negotiations in New York, as the Trump administration presses India to open its market wider to American farm goods.
“We’re very excited about India as an opportunity,” Ms. Rollins told reporters when asked about what kind of agricultural access U.S. wants from India.
Ms. Rollins remarked at the White House during a gaggle with reporters, underscoring U.S. efforts to expand agricultural exports to India. Her comments came as the administration continues to push for lower tariffs and broader access for American dairy, poultry and grain products.
Ms. Rollins appeared with Ben Carson, the former Housing and Urban Development secretary, who was sworn in earlier in the day as Trump’s National Nutrition Advisor.
Calling the appointment “a really banner day,” Ms. Rollins said Carson’s story was “remarkable” and reflected the American dream. “There’s no greater American who has lived the American dream in just such a remarkable way than Ben Carson,” she said.
Mr. Carson said he plans to make nutrition a top priority, particularly for low-income families.
“So many people who are in the lower socioeconomic groups do not get good nutrition,” he said. “We’re going to expand things that are shelved, that are kept in stores that are healthy foods, and we’re going to really try to look at food from its inception … how it gets to stores, how it gets to the home.”
Mr. Carson linked poor diets to declining U.S. life expectancy. “We look at many other industrialized countries, and their life expectancy is still going up. Our life expectancy is coming down. We need to correct that, and I think it has a lot to do with what we eat,” he said.
Ms. Rollins announced new standards for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. She said retailers will now be required to stock 28 healthy options, up from 12.
“Under the old rules, they had to carry one protein. That could have been a bag of beef jerky … but now it has to include eggs, turkey, ham, cheese, dairy,” she said.
She also defended the department’s decision to cancel a longstanding hunger survey. “It was one more waste of taxpayer dollars not being used appropriately,” Ms. Rollins said, adding that other agencies already collect similar data.
On SNAP work requirements, Ms. Rollins said they would continue to apply to “able-bodied adults that could work that didn’t have children under the age of 13 or 14.” She said additional announcements will follow.
Ms. Rollins also addressed the financial pressure on U.S. farmers, citing rising costs for fertilizer, fuel, and seeds. “Only 5% [of farmers] have made money over the last decade,” she said. A new relief package is being developed with Congress and could be announced soon, she said.
Both officials were asked about a shooting earlier in the day at a federal office in Dallas. Rollins called it “really disheartening and heartbreaking.”
Mr. Carson said, “Just because we think differently doesn’t make us enemies. In fact, you can learn a lot more from somebody who disagrees with you than somebody who agrees with you on everything.”
They closed by endorsing Trump’s plan for a prayer initiative tied to America’s 250th anniversary.
“We believe that we’re fighting for the soul of America,” Ms. Rollins said.
Mr. Carson added, “Instead of love your neighbour, cancel your neighbour. Those are not good things. So it’s good to have a government that actually realisesrealizes that.”
Ms. Rollins’s opening line on India, however brief, highlighted the administration’s continued push for agricultural trade access in one of the world’s largest markets.
“We’re very excited about India, the opportunity,” she said.
This article is published in an arrangement with 5WH.
Published – September 25, 2025 08:45 am IST
