Cutting USAID hurts farmers
To the Editor:
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) buys about $2 billion — billion — in U.S. agricultural products per year. American crops like wheat, peas, lentils, rice, corn, soybeans, vegetable oil and sorghum are purchased for USAID programs.
Farmers are already struggling with rising costs, lower prices, concerns about tariffs on international markets and a dwindling workforce. This shutdown by the Trump administration reneges on contracts our government made with our own farmers. It leaves already harvested crops to potentially rot in storage while people die from hunger and may result in being the last straw for a number of generational farmers in danger of losing their land.
This spending is less than 1% of the federal budget. Can we extrapolate here to what it is going to cost to subsidize our farmers for these losses if we want them to survive? Because that’s usually what happens. Can we justify the cost of lost lives? Of increased disease and human suffering? Can we justify losing standing in the world as compassionate leaders? Is less than 1% of our budget really just a bridge too far for Christian charity and a Christian nation?
D.J. Rhinehart
Waynesville
