Screwing Farmers Is Bad For Everyone

Earlier this month, we discussed how severe cuts at the USDA were going to affect school lunches and food banks. There was a strong sense then that the vast majority of Americans didn’t understand how severe a hit those cuts were to almost every facet of American life. Now that we’ve had a couple of weeks to see how those cuts unfold, not only are we concerned about getting food to kids, but we’re concerned about there being any farms at all.

Yeah, that sounds a bit alarmist, but what we’re looking at is downright scary. Farming has never been much of a ‘get rich and retire’ life plan. People who are farmers do it because they love the land, their dedicated to its cultivation and development, and they sacrifice to make sure that they have the largest yield harvested right on time so that America and other countries have plenty to eat. They miss out on vacations, going camping, or taking cruises. They’ve watched margins shrink as corporate farms make it almost impossible for the family farm to turn a profit. The cost of heavy equipment has skyrocketed to the point that, for many farmers it is cheaper to lease equipment as needed rather than buying tractors and such for themselves.

What’s hurting most is the loss of two pandemic-era initiatives: the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) and Local Food for Schools (LFS) programs. Together, the two programs provide $1 billion to farmers across 40 states, buying local food to put in schools and food banks. Farmers were blindsided by the cuts. This is the time of year when they’re normally getting the ground ready to plant. In fact, some crops needed to already be in the ground. Imagine the feeling of going into debt to by seed and fertilizer, plus leasing equipment to do the plowing and planting, only to discover that your primary buyer isn’t going to purchase a damn thing this year.

Dawn Thilmany, an agricultural economist at Colorado State University, said the cuts will be particularly hard on midsize producers, who are too large to rely solely on farmers’ markets but too small to compete in large-scale commodity markets. Without programs like LFPA, Thilmany warns, many farmers may be forced to sell into lower-paying national markets — or risk their crops going unsold altogether.

Understand that for many farmers, if they lose an entire year’s crops, that’s it for them. Game over. They have to sell the farm and look for other work. They’re not coming back.

The impact goes beyond the farm and into rural areas that rely on farming. In urban areas, large grocery stores and food banks can place bulk orders. However, rural communities are often spread out, with smaller orders scattered across miles of winding roads, according to a study by TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit. The LFPA program helped food hubs create transport networks, which involved mapping routes and investing in different truck sizes to make deliveries more efficient and affordable. 

Thilmany said food hubs are critical for rural areas, not only keeping farmers afloat but also strengthening regional food networks. “So that’s kind of the hidden story here — besides helping farmers and ranchers, we’ve seen this redevelopment of more regional food infrastructure,” Thilmany told CNN.

A letter signed by 31 senators representing heavily rural states asked the USDA to reverse the cuts. The USDA has, so far, ignored the request.

The President can blabber all he wants about tariffs and how they’re going to make everyone rich (they’re not), but if America’s farms go under, we’re looking at plagues of disease and hunger taking hold of America’s heartland. Farmers are tough individuals, they’re accustomed to dealing with tragedy and setbacks. What the USDA has done, however, is the equivalent of yanking the ground out from under the tractors right at a time when they should be planting crops.

The only hope at the moment is for Congress to grow a fucking spine and reverse the USDA’s decision, or replace the programs with something better. Quickly. Farmers don’t have much, if any wiggle room for getting crops in the ground on time. A weekly barrage of bad weather across much of the nation only complicates matters.

Sure, your congressional representatives are tired of you calling all the time, but if you like to eat, this is an issue we need to take seriously.