The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has canceled a large part of a $300 million program that was meant to help farmers from underserved communities hold on to their land. The program, called the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program (LCMAP), was created under the Biden administration in 2023 and had already given funding to around 50 projects.
According to The Independent, the program was cut because of “discriminatory preferences based on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and “wasteful spending,” according to a cancellation letter sent to one of the participants. A USDA spokesperson said, “Over the last year, USDA has worked to clean up the mess left for us by the last Administration.” They added, “A peek behind the curtain of this Biden-era program revealed the egregious misuse of taxpayer dollars to the tune of nearly $300 million dollars.”
The LCMAP program was specifically built to support Black, immigrant, and Indigenous farmers, who have historically faced discrimination and limited access to government programs. Past funding under LCMAP helped set up Indigenous farming groups and improved land access in the agricultural “Black Belt” regions of the South, including states like Arkansas and Mississippi.
The USDA’s spending complaints do not justify ending a program that served historically excluded farmers
A USDA official claimed the program lacked enough direct support for producers, saying it “included no minimum requirement for direct producer support.” The official also alleged misuse of federal funds, pointing to spending on items like a barbecue smoker, a gazebo, massages, and a $20,000 budget for ink pens for a single recipient.
Critics strongly opposed the decision. Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said, “Once again, the Trump administration has turned its back on America’s farmers.”
She added, “Instead of focusing on lowering input costs for farm families by ending Trump’s inflationary tariffs and the war in Iran, which has sent prices for fertilizer and fuel skyrocketing, the Trump administration thinks it is more important to rescind funding for a program passed by Congress that helps farmers buy and retain farmland.” Many farmers are already under serious pressure, and those facing a looming food crisis deadline say the lack of a federal bailout is making things worse.
This cancellation fits into a larger pattern at the USDA. Last year, the agency canceled around 600 grants totaling $3 billion to comply with White House orders aimed at ending DEI programs. Staff reportedly searched through grant applications for words related to diversity or climate change to find programs to cut.
The USDA has also lost a large number of staff under President Trump. Federal data shows that more than 24,000 people have either left or been fired from the agency since he took office. Nick Levendofsky, executive director of the Kansas Farmers Union, said, “If you don’t have the folks that are there to do the work that’s needed to be done, whether that’s paperwork or following up with farmers on a project that they are wanting to do, then where do those farmers go for those services?” This is part of a broader pattern where Trump’s American workforce vision has ended up affecting the very communities it claimed to protect. A coalition of 20 Democratic states and the District of Columbia has also sued the administration, challenging what they call “ideological” and “vague” conditions tied to new government agriculture funding.
Published: Mar 25, 2026 02:19 pm