California farmers are grappling with persistent challenges, made worse by a $1 billion cut from the USDA under President Trump's administration. This funding cut has severely affected farmers who supply food to schools and food banks. After warnings that funding was only available for work completed by mid-January, farmers organized a campaign which successfully secured payment for their efforts. However, the USDA's announcement that the program would end in 2025 cast a shadow over their victory, highlighting the ongoing instability. Farmer Bryce Loewen emphasized the need for resilience and advocacy, rallying efforts to combat funding issues during the slow winter months.
Every year brings its own unique challenges for California farmers: water shortages, fires, finding laborers to do the work, bureaucrats in Sacramento adding new requirements and fees, and more.
But during winter, the slowest season on the farm, there's downtime, and California farmers like Loewen recently used that lull to fight to regain the money farmers were owed and help feed some of their most vulnerable neighbors.
On February 28, California officials warned farmers who had grown food for schools and food banks that there was funding only for work done up to January 19, despite the fact that farmers had submitted invoices for work and harvests past that date.
A farmer's instinct is to fix things, said Loewen. And that's what we did.
#california-agriculture #usda-funding-cuts #farmer-advocacy #food-security #trump-administration-effects
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