Trump cuts could squeeze small farmers and food banks

At Happy Hollow Farm, a small, 16-acre operation in central Missouri, Liz Graznak grows a variety of vegetables, including organic carrots, Swiss chard, radishes and beets.

Some of those vegetables go to local distributors where they are placed in boxes, alongside meat and dairy items also produced in the state, and delivered to low-income people. Other vegetables are sent to school districts that would normally not have the budget to serve students fresh, locally grown produce.

For Graznak, about $240,000, or roughly a quarter of her farm’s annual revenue, came from the two federal programs that supported these efforts.

This week, she learned that the Agriculture Department had abruptly eliminated the programs. In a Fox News interview Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the programs “nonessential” and “an effort by the left to continue spending taxpayer dollars that was not necessary.”

Now, Graznak fears that her small farm is at risk. Like many farmers, she relies on loans, and she worries about how to make payments on the $750,000 she owes.

“My farm production has more than doubled in size in the last 2 1/2 to three years because of these programs and this income,” Graznak said. “That money was supporting the growth of my farm. I’m leveraged so high, it’s scary. I’m struggling with that right now.”

The Biden administration created the two programs during the coronavirus pandemic to strengthen local supply chains. They had provided $1 billion in grants to states, which then made money available to school districts, food banks and distribution hubs to buy produce, meat, fish, dairy and other minimally processed foods from over 8,000 local farmers.

In December, the Agriculture Department announced another tranche of $1.1 billion in funding for the programs: the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement and the Local Foods for Schools program. But the Trump administration notified recipients last week that it had decided to terminate both.

Money for the programs came through the department’s Commodity Credit Corporation, a pot of money replenished annually. The agriculture secretary has broad discretion to revoke that funding and use it for purposes aligned with the administration’s aims. The first Trump administration used the funds to pay farmers hurt by his trade war with China, while the Biden administration spent it on promoting climate-friendly farming practices and local food systems.

A spokesperson for the agency said in a statement that the sunsetting of the programs marked “a return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives” and that “the COVID era is over.”

Some participants, however, expressed surprise that the programs were suddenly scrapped, saying they seemed to intersect with many of the Trump administration’s priorities. The administration has vowed to support farmers and to encourage Americans to eat healthier foods, and to empower states to oversee and distribute the funds.

“These were programs that had Republican support in many states,” said Katie Nixon, board president for the Kansas City Food Hub, an organization that connected local farmers like Graznak with community programs and schools. Last week, the group set up outside a diner in Stockton, Missouri, and distributed free boxes of fresh food and produce. About half of the recipients were elderly, and would most likely find it difficult to trek to a larger city for access to a food bank, according to the food hub.

Rep. GT Thompson, R-Pa., chair of the House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement: “The administration is acting within its authority to revisit these programs, which were created as part of the previous administration using temporary American Rescue Plan funds. These were never meant to be permanent, especially when long-standing farm bill programs already provide food assistance that supports farmers, families, and rural communities.”

The Kansas City Food Hub estimates Missouri will lose nearly $20 million from the two programs. “To get notice on a Friday afternoon, with no forewarning,” Nixon said. “It’s already late in the season. Farmers have already started preparing for those sales.”

Tom McDougall, the founder and CEO of 4P Foods, a food distributor and delivery company in Virginia, noted that the local food programs were not unlike the Farmers to Families boxes created by the first Trump administration. That program delivered 170 million boxes of free fresh food to Americans in need from farmers whose markets were disrupted by the pandemic.

“These programs are not handouts,” he said. “These are investments in the future of an ‘America First’ food system, right? And it’s a system where family-owned farms can thrive once again.”

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