Donald Trump won massive majorities in Virginia’s farm counties. He has a knack for taking advantage of those who support him.
Last month, Trump’s USDA announced the cancellation of two Biden-era programs, the Local Foods for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which provided more than $1 billion in national funding for schools and food banks to buy food from local farmers.
Another way to put it is that he takes a billion dollars per year out of the pockets of farmers who voted for him to own the liberals.
“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 approximately $150,000 in fresh fruit and vegetables to food banks across the state through the local food purchase program.
These sales have enabled the group of 22 member farmers to expand their businesses and recruit new members, including young and inexperienced producers.
The group is reducing planting this spring as they look for replacement markets.
“It might be a tough year for us, but we just keep looking for other opportunities,” says Goldman.
In the 2024 election, Donald Trump received 65.8 percent of the vote in Charlotte County.
According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Virginia has received $13.6 million from the two farm programs so far and is expected to lose $20.6 million in calendar year 2025.
Farmers are collateral damage. The Trump supporters are primarily interested in the portion of the program that assists children and low-income families in obtaining food.
The Biden programs provided $3 million in food to the Federation of Virginia Food Banks each year, a valuable support system as rising food prices put a strain on both consumers and food banks.
According to the federation, traffic at the seven regional food banks and their network of 1,150 pantry partners increased by 20% on average between 2023 and 2024, and the food banks spent nearly five times more on food than in 2019.
According to Feeding America, about 964,000, or one in every nine Virginians, were hungry in 2022, up 37 percent from the previous year.
“We are really dependent on any sort of initiatives that we can find, like the LFPA, and we are particularly grateful when they can benefit Virginia’s ag economy and local farmers,” said Eddie Oliver, executive director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks.
The federation works to strengthen partnerships with Virginia farmers through programs such as Farms to Food Banks, which includes the Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Program.
VAFAP compensates farmers for the fixed costs of donating excess produce.
Last year’s Farms to Food Banks initiative sourced nearly 2 million pounds of food from 65 local agricultural partners.
“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 told the crowd. “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.”
The USDA has also halted $500 million in funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, a nutrition program that buys U.S. commodities for emergency food recipients. That program accounts for about 30% 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 informed the audience.
So here’s where we stand: more people will go hungry, including farmers who supported Donald Trump.
But, hey, consider the liberals owned.
