USAID Cuts Worry Kansas Farmers Who Depend on Food Assistance Sales

The U.S. Agency for International Development, shuttered by DOGE in early February, has run the Food for Peace program, which buys surplus crops from farmers and donates it to hungry people around the world. 

Now farmers in Kansas, who sell their crops to county co-ops that negotiated sales with the U.S. government, are worried about the loss in revenue. The Economist reports: 

The federal government allocated $1.7 [billion] for Food for Peace in 2023, which went towards farms — but also to truckers and barge operators that get commodities to ports. Kansas accounts for 57% of American sorghum production, almost all for export. The loss of USAID means one less big customer. Kim Barnes, the co-op’s chief financial officer, is cold-calling potential clients to find new markets.

“A co-op went under last year,” he says, and he predicts several more will close this year, causing local farmers to lose their equity.