Tennessee
Why small Tennessee farmers will lose millions after USDA budget cuts
Farmers brace for cuts to USAID and USDA
Farmers, who already operate under thin margins, said funding cuts to programs like USAID, USDA and a new trade war were concerning.
- The budget cuts will impact two programs: The Local Food for Schools and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs.
- The programs funneled millions to Tennessee farmers to keep local products in local communities.
- The food, like fresh eggs and produce, went to nearby schools to help feed children and to local food pantries.
Tennessee farmers will lose millions in local food purchases after sweeping federal cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture led to the closure of two programs funding fresh food for schools and food banks.
The USDA announced nearly $1 billion in cuts last week, shuttering the Local Food for Schools program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement.
The two programs funneled millions of dollars into Tennessee to keep local products in local communities, buying things like fresh eggs or produce from small farms to feed kids at nearby schools or needy populations at local food pantries.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture confirmed this week the state was informed on March 7 the local food purchase program would close. The Tennessee Department of Education, which administers the local schools program, has not yet responded to a Tennessean inquiry, but the School Nutrition Association reports $660 million in funds for schools to buy local food had been canceled nationwide.
Jeannine Carpenter, chief communications officer for the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, said food bank officials had watched cost-cutting developments in Washington D.C. with trepidation but hoped the local programs would not be caught up in a wave of cuts.
Tennessee had previously contracted with the five regional food banks that cover the state. Those organizations then contracted with local farmers, like the seven farmers who supplied Chattanooga’s food bank with goods that were distributed through 38 community pantries in 11 counties in the first year of the program.
Now, the programs will shut down entirely, just three months after the USDA announced a $1.13 billion investment in the upcoming fiscal year. Tennessee planned to opt-in again to draw down those funds, TDA confirmed.
“The decisions to take away access to local food are being made by people who have never stepped foot on a small Tennessee farm or shopped in a Tennessee farmer’s market,” Carpenter said.
The local food purchase program was first developed in 2021 with COVID-era recovery funds, and local farmers who contracted with the program praised the stability it provided farms by paying market rate while keeping locally grown food in local communities. Funding was later established to make it a permanent program.
In late 2023, a Tennessee Department of Agriculture error led to the state missing out on more than $7 million in the program’s second round of funding. Tennessee lawmakers, recognizing the value of the program, pushed the state department to make up the lost funds.
Those state dollars are currently being spent, Carpenter said, and will maintain farmer contracts through the end of the year.
Expected 2025 funding for the Local Food for Schools program, however, will not come.
‘We’re just a small family business’: Local farmers say cuts hurt them
For Kelsey Keener, the end of the program will mean a disappointing coda for a contract that provided financial consistency for his family farm and a meaningful connection to the community.
Keener, a second generation farmer at Sequatchie Cove Farm, was one of the first farmers to sign up for the first round of the local food purchase program. Though Keener said he was hesitant to rely too much on a single contract, the federal funds provided a “signficant” source of income at a critical time for the farm.
Sequatchie was able to scale up its operations over the last three years, in part thanks to the contract. Keener said it made up about 20% of their expected income at its high watermark.
Sequatchie was proud to provide fresh farm eggs and meat to their neighbors in Middle and East Tennessee, and the local contract gave the farm more flexibility with the natural ebbs and flows of production capacity than they might find with a corporate contract.
Keener said he was disappointed when he learned the funding was cut for a program that was an obvious “win-win” for both the farmers and recipients of the food.
“The bigger picture political messaging with all of the cuts, it sounds like they’re just cutting superfluous stuff that doesn’t affect anybody and it’s all a waste of money,” Keener said. “But it did affect us financially in a real way. We’re not some big corporation that’s just taking advantage of the system.
“We’re just a small family business trying to make a living.”