WASHINGTON, D.C. (NAFB) – President Biden’s 30-by-30 climate executive order issued during his first week in office directing agencies to propose ways to conserve at least 30 percent of the nation’s land and water by 2030, is kicking up plenty of dirt in farm country.

It’s not a good topic in farm country, where the federal government already manages, or some feel, mismanages, plenty of lands. South Dakota U.S. Senate Republican John Thune says his producers worry about more of that.

Thune wanted to know from Jewel Bronaugh at her confirmation hearing to be USDA Deputy Secretary if producers should fear more federal land takings.

But it wasn’t the answer Thune wanted to hear, leaving a big opening for the government to gobble up more land and water.

Farm groups and Ag lawmakers spent years fighting Obama-era rules, known as “Waters of the U.S.,” which they claimed took away private property rights on millions of acres but was reversed by the last administration.