Donald Trump ran up huge majorities in Virginia’s farm counties. He sure has a knack for screwing over the people who are on his side.
Trump’s USDA announced last month that it is canceling two Biden-era programs – the Local Foods for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program – that provided more than $1 billion nationally for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers.
Another way to put it: he’s taking a billion dollars a year out of the pockets of farmers who voted for him to own the libs.
“It’s helped keep our farms alive and growing,” said Brick Goldman, president of the Southside Virginia Fruit and Vegetable Producers Association in Charlotte County, which has sold about $150,000 worth of fresh fruit and vegetables to food banks statewide through the local food purchase program.
Those sales have helped the group of 22 member farmers expand their businesses and recruit more members, including young and beginning producers.
The group is cutting back on planting this spring as they scramble for replacement markets.
“It might be a tough year for us, but we just keep looking for other opportunities,” Goldman added.
Charlotte County, incidentally, gave 65.8 percent of its votes in the 2024 election to Donald Trump.
ICYMI
Virginia has received $13.6 million through the two farm programs to date, and stands to lose $20.6 million in calendar-year 2025, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The farmers are collateral damage. What the Trumpers are really after is the part of the program that helps kids and struggling families get food.
The Federation of Virginia Food Banks was getting $3 million a year in food from the Biden programs – a valuable support system as rising food prices strain consumers and food banks alike.
Traffic across the seven regional food banks and their network of 1,150 pantry partners rose 20 percent on average from 2023 to 2024, and the food banks spent nearly five times more on food than in 2019, according to the federation.
About 964,000, or 1 in 9, Virginians were facing hunger in 2022 – around 37 percent more than the year before, according to Feeding America.
“We are really dependent on any sort of initiatives that we can find like the LFPA, and we particularly are grateful when they can benefit Virginia’s ag economy and local farmers,” said Eddie Oliver, the executive director at the Federation of Virginia Food Banks.
The federation works to strengthen partnerships with Virginia farmers through initiatives like Farms to Food Banks, which includes the Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Program.
Through VAFAP, farmers are paid the fixed costs associated with donating excess produce.
Nearly 2 million pounds of food were sourced from 65 local agricultural partners through the Farms to Food Banks initiative last year.
“We feel like the work of the LFPA and other grants to connect local farmers with the food bank network has been a tremendous success in Virginia,” Oliver said. “We just didn’t expect the rug to be pulled out from under us this quickly, and we are scrambling a little bit to replace product.”
USDA has also paused $500 million in funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, a nutrition program that purchases U.S. commodities for emergency food providers. That program makes up about 30 percent of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks’ inventories.
“We’re going to need a lot of support from the community, and we’re hoping the state can help provide some additional support to offset the impacts of the federal cuts,” Oliver said.
So, where we are with this: more people are going to go hungry, including farmers who voted for Donald Trump.
But, hey, consider the libs owned.
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Chris Graham
