Environmentalist group Sierra Club says it’s concerned about cuts to federal funds for Kentucky farmers.
The Local Food Purchase Assistance and Local Food for Schools programs were included in the Inflation Reduction Act, a Biden-era climate spending bill that passed three years ago. Those programs gave farmers contracts to send crops to local food banks and schools.
The USDA cut around $1 billion worth of funding to those programs last month.
Hank Graddy leads the Kentucky Sierra Club’s Healthy Food, Healthy Earth program. He says those cuts take away what was guaranteed money for farmers.
“They were very excited about this program, and a number of them were disadvantaged farmers and Black farmers, and they were excited, and I was excited,” Graddy said. “This looked like a program that had a lot of promise. It's now been eliminated.”
Graddy says other cuts could also impact sustainable farming practices in favor of more industrialized operations. Around $20 billion for farm conservation work was included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“This 20 billion was earmarked to go to them, those programs, and help farmers become more resilient, become better prepared for heavy rains, better prepared to survive drought,” Graddy said.
The Trump administration froze funding from the act earlier this year, and was ordered to resume funding by a federal judge last week.
