Dani Replogle is a staff attorney with the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

For nearly a century, the U.S. government has encouraged farmers to adopt practices that conserve wetlands, protect clean water, and keep farms sustainable. But this common-sense federal commitment to farmers and wetland conservation is now under threat.

Swampbuster, a federal program that rewards farmers who conserve wetlands with eligibility for millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Agriculture benefits, is a policy that embodies the longstanding governmental commitment to supporting good farmland stewardship practices. Thanks to the Trump administration and a suite of lawsuits that have cropped up in federal courts, Swampbuster and similar incentive programs now face an uncertain future.

For years, family farm groups have been advocating for this long-term farm sustainability program. This month, attorneys representing sustainable agriculture groups will defend the critical Swampbuster program in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

All the while, the architects of Project 2025, the ultra-right blueprint that President Donald Trump’s team has been rapidly implementing since inauguration, want sustainability programs like Swampbuster revoked entirely. Just last month, the Trump administration halted the release of funds for farmers to implement conservation projects. For many farmers, the funding freeze came as a punch to the gut, with unanswered questions and financial concerns looming. 

Emboldened by a reckless Trump White House, private actors with troubling industry ties are working in courthouses across the country to make this chapter of Project 2025 a reality. The driving force behind one such lawsuit, CTM Holdings, LLC v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, is Jim Conlan.

Conlan runs an asset management company aimed at helping corporations minimize financial consequences stemming from tort liability. He is a landlord, not a farmer. He is also the managing member of CTM Holdings, the plaintiff in the case. Despite the voluntary nature of Swampbuster and the numerous exemptions for productive uses of wetlands, Conlan and his lawyers claim the program unconstitutionally constrains what farmers can do with their property. According to Conlan, the program is tantamount to a mandatory, uncompensated conservation easement on his property in northeast Iowa.

Notably, both the USDA and family farmers disagree with this characterization. A group of organizations including Iowa Farmers Union, Dakota Rural Action, and Food & Water Watch intervened in the lawsuit to represent the views of farmers who care about the long-term sustainability of their land. According to farmers who filed declarations in support of the group’s intervention, Swampbuster merely provides an incentive to manage farmland responsibly. They explain that the program is a benefit rather than a burden, serving to protect farmers from adverse impacts such as lower crop prices and heightened risks from disasters like droughts and floods.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa will hear oral argument on the merits of the case on March 31.

The Iowa case will be the first, but not last, test of Project 2025 zealots’ radical agricultural agenda. Another lawsuit filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation—one of the organizations representing Conlan in CTM Holdings—on behalf of another non-farmer is close behind. This case, filed in Washington, D.C., has its sights set on curtailing a Fish & Wildlife Service program that pays farmers to conserve valuable wildlife habitat on their properties. Farmers who choose to comply with Swampbuster often enroll in the Fish & Wildlife Service’s easement program as well to maximize the financial benefits of wetland conservation. The plaintiff in this second case has sided against Iowa farmers before—he filed a letter of support for Summit Carbon Solutions’ controversial pipeline project.

Donald Trump and his corporate cronies have shown little respect for policies that preserve farmland and help farmers protect clean water. This month’s federal hearing in Cedar Rapids offers the court an opportunity to send the Project 2025 demagogues packing.

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Top image: Missouri Couteau Potholes in North Dakota’s prairie pothole region, photographed in 2015 by Krista Lundgren for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Photo available via Wikimedia Commons.