An organization representing New Mexico's farming community is warning that the Trump administration's decision to terminate a program will be "devastating" to local producers.
Concretely, The Food Depot said in a release that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Regional Farm to Food Bank program represents over a third of institutional purchases from small and midsize producers in the New Mexico Grown program.
The program was created in 2021 and renewed in October of last year, with the government allocating an additional $500 million to it. However, following the administration change, its termination was announced. It will effectively end in June.
"We believe in community and food banks helping people access food, and producers who care about beautiful, local, nutritious food being in the hands of their community members. That's who was at the table here: people who all have the same passion for feeding people good food," said The Food Depot Executive Director Jill Dixon, as reported by Rawstory.
The outlet detailed that the vast majority of purchase came from historically underserved producers. "Without this support, we risk losing more than income; we risk losing the ability to sustain our land, our families, and our way of life," said Manny Encinas, owner of Trilogy Beef and Buffalo Creek Ranch in Moriarty.
"This decision doesn't just impact ranchers. It threatens the entire rural economy, including locally owned businesses like our USDA meat processing facility, which depends on ranching families like us to stay in operation. Perhaps most concerning, it makes it even harder to bring the next generation back to the ranch," he added.
The termination of the program compounds to existing fears producers are facing during the Trump administration, among them migrant workers concerned about the possibility of being deported.
According to French news agency AFP, 42% of the more than two million people working on farms across the country lack documentation that allows them to work legally. Advocacy groups have warned that large-scale deportations could disrupt food production, as California alone relies on undocumented workers for 75% of its farm labor, according to the University of California-Merced. Labor shortages could not only disrupt the agricultural supply chain, but could also lead to higher food prices and increased reliance on imports.
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