Federal cuts thwart West Paris farm’s future plans

Trump’s unconstitutional federal grant cuts are devastating Maine farmers. These West Paris farmers had $43,000 unexpectedly revoked. They won the grant for their climate resilience practices. The funding was going to be a direct payment to support crop rotations, mulching, tarping, building soil health and improving the farm’s biodiversity. They lease their land and losing this operational cash flow suddenly puts them in extraordinary financial risk. Other Maine farms are now facing closure because the federal government is not reimbursing them for finished projects. To make matters worse, the USDA axed two national programs to help Maine food banks and schools purchase produce from local farms. Maine lost more than $5M in federal funding from those cuts, and 100,000 Maine students no longer have access to healthy local foods purchased directly from Maine farms. This is all happening so billionaires can get tax cuts. The oligarchs running our country are annihilating normal people’s livelihoods to line their pockets.