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Farmers first?

The executive director of the Organic Farmers Association says the Trump administration’s actions aren’t matching its messaging.

“I don’t see how you put American farmers first if we’re gutting all of this support for them.”

Kate Mendenhall says the freezing of promised federal funds is having drastic impacts on organic farmers across the country. 

“We have farmers who have been investing their own funds in conservation projects, local food production projects, and were expecting the government to reimburse.”  She says, “It’s just adding a lot of financial stress.”

She tells Brownfield the organization’s members are also concerned about cuts to the USDA.

“Farmers rely on their local USDA offices to get the services they need, to get crop insurance, to get affordable farm loans, to get support to implement conservation,” she says.

She says the moves are detrimental to national security.

“We learned a lot of lessons during the pandemic and one of the major lessons was that our national food security is not secure,” she says.

Mendenhall says strengthening local food infrastructure is the best way to secure the nation’s food supply and encourages farmers to speak up about the impact of the cuts.

AUDIO: Kate Mendenhall – Organic Farmers Association