No Relief Yet - It's Getting Worse - for U.S. Farmers Pummeled Under Trump 2.0

This Week's Victim? The USDA.

Farmer and USDA NRCS employee. Image sourced from USDA NRCS Texas

I wish I could say things have been looking up for U.S. agriculture since the news first came out that many U.S. farmers have been negatively impacted by the multiplying impact of Trump’s DOGE funding freezes, agency pauses (and outright dismantling) and tariff posturing.

But unfortunately, that’s not been the case. At least not when I sat down to write this. Instead, starting this past Thursday, DOGE took aim at the United States Department of Agriculture, aka the USDA, firing ‘probationary’ employees in what has been described as a “blood bath” of terminations.

There’s still a lot of confusion going on, with many expecting more termination letters to come through on Monday. To be clear, probationary periods can run from one year to three, depending upon the job, and apply even to long-time USDA employees who have recently taken a job promotion. Translation — it’s a lot of folks, many with significant dollars invested into their training.

Based on what I’ve been able to confirm so far, here’s a breakdown of the fallout and how it is likely to impact the USDA agencies these folks were working at.

Note: In the case of screenshots of USDA employees sharing online about these impacts I have covered up online indentifiers so I don’t inadvertently facilitate any backlash against them. However, I will link the sources I pulled these across from at the end of this article.

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

ARS is the ‘in-house’ research body for U.S. agriculture. There are no specifics on the number of employees terminated so far, but there are loads of comments online from those who lost their jobs.

The researchers and scientists at ARS are on the frontline of nutrition, food safety and quality, livestock and crop production, natural resources and sustainable agricultural systems. Along with our land grant university systems, ARS researchers are often the first area of investment into solving critical food and agricultural issues, whether that’s preventing food-borne illness outbreaks to breeding more climate-resilient crops and livestock to new ways to combat pests and diseases impacting food production.

USDA Animal Plant and Health Inspection Services (APHIS)

Wondering what government agency is working to combat the escalating Avian Flu crisis? Well, that would be APHIS. Like ARS, I can’t find any specific numbers on how many have lost their jobs, but plenty of people online are reporting they received a termination letter.

APHIS is the one-stop shop for all U.S. animal and plant disease and pest emergencies. They’re the veterinarians in the field testing flocks of dying waterfowl. They’re the ones that enforce biosecurity in the event of a disease of pest outbreak, including those that are dangerous to humans, like mad cow disease. They also disseminate information and mandate and enforce policies to prevent and contain the spread the disease and pest outbreaks.

Little known fact, but the APHIS also researches and implements policies on wildlife behaviors aimed at preventing human-wildlife accidents, like bird flocks causing aircraft accidents.

USDA Farm Services Agency (FSA)

The FSA serves as the first point of contact for U.S. farmers and ranchers when they want to access government programs. Also no specifics on numbers, but lots of termination reports.

FSA offices are typically locally based. They help farmers and ranchers with everything from credit and loan lines, disaster relief, conservation grants and farm marketing programs. Many smaller or beginning farmers and ranchers that aren’t large enough to qualify for bank loans depend on low-interest FSA operating loans to cover their early season production costs with payments due at the end of the season when harvests come on. Or, they tap low-interest FSA loans to purchase new land or grow their operations.

Zach Ducheneaux, who served as FSA administrator during the Biden administration, said the firings of loan officers would likely make it harder for farmers to get USDA loans.

"Firing local FSA loan officers is not only a waste of taxpayer investment in their training, producers will lose the opportunity to buy a farm or ranch, if not lose their existing farm or ranch,” Ducheneaux said. “They will not be able to get their operating money in a timely fashion. That's not hyperbole. It is actual, literal fact." - Source: AgriPulse

USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS)

FNS is, essentially, our domestic food aid. It includes programs like SNAP, WIC and the National School Lunch Program. FNS administers U.S. domestic nutrition programs to alleviate U.S. hunger. Again no tallies on terminations, just plenty of anecdotes.

How does FNS benefit farmers? Well, FNS funds are typically administered at the state and local level, where they are often funneled into specific programs that help boost regional farm sales. For instance, many states and regions have programs that increase SNAP benefits if those recipients spend those dollars with local farmers and ranchers, perhaps at a farmers market. When I was slinging veggies at my community farmers market, I was approved to accept SNAP and WIC coupons for purchases. On some market days, they made up as much as 30% of my market sales.

FNS also purchases food directly, especially extra commodities like cheese, and distributes that food through food relief programs, helping move U.S. farmer and rancher products while keeping our most vulnerable populations fed.

United States Forest Service (USFS)

The USFS is an agency with the USDA and lead for combating wildfires. The latest reporting I have seen has about 3,400 USFS employees fired.

Although a ‘forest’ agency seems like it would be less of an agriculture-specific agency, the USFS (along with other agencies like BLM) also oversees the grazing allotments on public lands, which are crucial to the grazing operations of many U.S. ranchers. Plus, rangeland and forest management for wildfire prevention are tightly intertwined, with one often fueling the fire (literally) of the other.

Specific to farmers and ranchers, the USFS also helps research and disseminate information on sustainable forestry and grazing practices, including sustainable practices like silvopasture. And the USFS hosts the USDA Climate Hubs (along with ARS), which link USDA research and programs across agencies to facilitate regional delivery of tools and information to agricultural producers.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

The NRCS is the agency that provides technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers to help them conserve their natural resources. From ag trade reporting, the NRCS offices have been hit with about 1200 terminations so far.

Along with gathering and maintaining records, including soil class profiles, which help farmers implement precision farming practices that improve their efficiency and sustainability, the NRCS administers multiple grant and conservation programs that have been very popular with farmers and ranchers. This includes programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a cost-sharing program that helps farmers and ranchers make resource-focused improvements like new, more efficient irrigation systems. The NRCS also administers conservation stewardship programs that pay farmers and ranchers to not put into production critical watershed and wildlife areas.

Ironically, many of these employees were likely brought on board in the last few years to implement the $3 billion in climate-smart production grant monies released by Biden. Ironic because many of these projects specifically focused on the ‘soil health’ improvements that RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement are championing and are supposedly going to implement. I fail to see how firing off the people who would have championed the MAHA healthy soils cause was the right move.

What Does it All Mean for U.S. Agriculture?

Though this is obviously a still-moving trainwreck, I think we can start to make a few assumptions about what we know so far.

A Bureaucratic Quagmire of Epic Proportions.

Already farmers and ranchers complain about the time and paperwork it takes to access USDA programs. That just got worse.

Even less warm bodies available to answer the phones, visit the farms and ranches, funnel information, host the educational tours and answer the questions? I don’t see this helping.

A Massive Brain Drain

The loss of scientists and researchers at ARS, APHIS and other agencies will have a long-term chilling effect on the ability of U.S. agriculture to not only respond to issues and opportunities but maintain its global position as a leading producer of the world’s food.

Loss of Rural Jobs

Many of these jobs, especially with NRCS and FSA, were located in the rural communities they serviced.

I can’t find any numbers specific to this question, but I would take a well-educated bet that a fair share of the terminated USDA employees were involved in farming or ranching themselves. Either as the spouse in a farming/ranching family holding down the “steady” job with the benefits to offset the financial risks of their family farming operation. Or, in some cases I have known personally, they have a small farm or ranch ‘side hustle’ of their own.

Where To From Here?

I honestly have no idea.

Many farmers and ranchers are still ‘holding onto hope' that the ‘funding freezes’ that have their grants and cost-share monies tied up are only a “bump in the road.” Perhaps these USDA terminations will be the same. But I’m afraid that is not the case. Secretary of Ag Brooke Rollins issued a press release Friday that DOGE had terminated 78 USDA contracts totaling more than $132 million, with more than 1,000 contracts still under review.

And DOGE tweeted they had eliminated an $8.2 million USDA contract to implement programs administered under Biden’s climate-smart initiative, which had funnelled $3 billion grant funds to agricultural producers, marketing organizations and forest landowners nationwide to support the adoption of climate-smart practices. Again, I can’t help but point out that the large majority of the climate-smart grants specifically supported the same “soil health/regenerative ag” mantra that RFK Jr. is purporting. I feel like we just cut off our noses to spite our faces.

A Final Note and a Plea

Finally, for those of you who read my post last week and responded with a FAFO response, listen, I get it. But, I would hope you could extend some, if not sympathy, at least empathy to U.S. farmers and ranchers facing this situation right now.

I’m a minority. A farmer who has not and did not support Trump. Yes, I feel supremely, deeply frustrated over everything that has happened since January 20th. But my heart still bleeds for all my fellow farmers and ranchers that have already been and will be, impacted by all this. Even those who are still supporting him.

And, while I didn’t agree with the agricultural vote for Trump, I do understand the generations of frustrations and disappointments with U.S. policies that are the reason why farmers and ranchers supported Trump. Quite frankly, liberals “FAFO” comments don’t help. If anything, it only makes farmers and ranchers double down. (And trust me, there is no more immovable force than a stubborn farmer/rancher!). Yes, this is a tough, sensitive subject to unpack, but I think one that absolutely must be discussed. I plan to address this in an upcoming post.

But for now, keep our farmers and ranchers in your hearts and please, please keep spreading the news. If I can do nothing else for my fellow farmers and ranchers, I can do that. I hope you will help me.

Farmer Georgie

P.S. If you would like to read through some of the threads of USDA employees who received termination letters for yourself, go here, here and here.