MAHA UPDATE
When I first heard about the upcoming MAHA political initiative and how the USDA was recruiting folks like the Joel Salatin (the celebrity regenerative author/farmer self dubbed “the lunatic farmer” I had a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe there was actually going to be some real change in the agricultural power dynamics. What I mean by power dynamics is traditionally in our country the entire agricultural marketplace has been dominated almost exclusively my monolithic monopolized corporations, that produce predominately Corn, Soy, Wheat, Beef, Pork and Chicken, who have swallowed up what was once a diverse landscape of hunters, foragers, fishermen and smaller farms producing a diversity of foods. These Mega corporations have gained control over every aspect of Agriculture, from buying up all the available farmland, to genetically modifying and patenting the seeds that are grown to buying out and consolidating the entire food chain from farm to processed (often highly processed) end product on the grocery store shelf. And of course this is America which means yes the politicians have all been bought out as well…Many of the largest agricultural corporations spend tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars each year towards political campaigns as well as running for high power positions in the USDA themselves. So the glimmer of hope came because the MAHA jargon the political campaign was using was along the lines of “this is a corrupt system that is making our population unhealthy and taking advantage of American family farmers, and we are going to root out the corruption and promote healthy diets for all Americans”. This sounds right inline with what I also think should happen, so although I did not personally vote for this campaign (because of many other reasons I will not get into here) I was very interested to see how this movement was going to play out!
Here we are 4 months into the new MAHA USDA administration so lets see how things are shaking out so far:
First of all I have not heard a single thing from Joel Salatin and now I am wondering did they just use him as a puppet to gain votes from the regenerative ag/ healthy farm foods segment of the population? And I am not saying that Joel is some person to put on a pedestal, in fact he has some very questionable beliefs that he has been vocal about that I am not 100% inline with myself (but we wont get into that here either).
So what have they (meaning the USDA) accomplished so far? Actually quite a lot, but not exactly what I or probably many other folks expected!
1. The USDA and DODGE have cut out millions and millions of dollars in programs…you might expect these programs were ones subsidizing big ag right??? Wrong! They cut funding for farm to school and farm to food Bank which has been a highly successful program that has provided millions of dollars for fresh local foods to children and folks in need while cutting out the middle man and paying the farmers directly the price that they need to be profitable…that program is GONE!
2. The USDA/DODGE cut millions funding going towards programs that were educating and supporting beginning farmers particularly any programs that specifically were supporting the traditionally underserved BIPOC community.
3. The USDA/ DODGE cut thousands of jobs in local/ regional offices around the country, these personnel who were fired are typically serving the small scale family farms around the country who are in need of support for conservation programs such as fencing livestock out of rivers and streams, as well as USDA loan programs for farmers need to scale up or simply keep their business in operation.
4. The USDA has also cut many conservation programs and frozen projects across the country that were already underway, leaving many farmers wondering if they will even get reimbursed for their existing projects that were already under contract!
5. The Trade War and Tariffs, are leaving farmers very stressed out not knowing what the price of goods and supplies will be in the near future, keep in mind most farms are operating with razor thin margins and the slightest increase in input costs could put many out of business within one year!
6. Many scientific research projects, particularly ones that study impacts of climate change and solutions to the many environmental disasters that farmers and the world face today have been canceled, leaving farmers and scientists wondering how we are supposed to react and learn from these events so we can be as adaptable and resilient as possible…
7. The FDA and CDC is cutting back on its food safety regulations, and announced they no longer are reporting on current food safety outbreaks such as E.coli and Salmonella…this may ease some of the constraints on small farmers for sure, but the mega corporations are the ones that will really benefit, meanwhile millions of Americans could be getting sick from food poisoning.
8. So the USDA cut all the above programs…which programs have they diverted that money into you might wonder? Lets see: The Industrial chicken industry received 1 Billion dollars to help them out after the most recent avian flu outbreak (which interestingly enough is only a problem on the magnitude that it is because of the industrial practices of cramming millions of birds together in houses). Even without the 1 Billion in funding the Egg industry has experienced unheard of profits do to widespread price gouging. Then the USDA announced 10 Billion dollars of funding to go directly to Row crop farmers of Corn, Soy and Wheat, because for some reason they need even more subsidies than the millions that they already receive each year!
9. There have been announcements about things such as banning food coloring dyes and increasing the milkfat content in school lunches which all sound fine, but there is no clear plan about how these programs will be enforced especially since the USDA and FDA have experienced so many staffing cuts, these regulatory departments are already scrambling to figure out how to do just the bare minimum, which of course opens the playing field up to all kinds of fowl play without any repercussions.
10. The ICE raids on farms and processing facilities and the new policies regarding illegal immigration are going to really cause major supply chain issues, particularly in the vegetable industry as well as meat packing plants…will see how that effects the price and availability of food in the coming year.
I cannot imagine that this is how supporters of the MAHA movement thought things were going to shake out. Things have progressed so quickly that I imagine many folks are still thinking that this is just the first phase before they begin to reinstate programs that actually help American farmers producing more healthy food for the population. I personally do not see how the actions of the first 4 months are setting the groundwork for anything but the expansion of the Mega Corporations and the loss of even more small scale regenerative type farms competing in the marketplace. The overall mindset of the current administration is a continuation of the extractive mindset that has gotten us into the environmental / health mess that we are in today! The roll back of scientific research, the blatant disregard for small scale regenerative agriculture and support of industrial agriculture, the lack of compassion or support for underserved communities, the deregulation and promotion of oil, gas, coal, logging, and fishing industries even on public lands is the polar opposite of our regenerative principles of working with nature and giving back more than we take… this is the exact mindset that has caused the utter destruction of the worlds forests and loss of biodiversity on land and in the oceans as well as the environmental disasters from pollution of air, land and water and the loss of the majority of the worlds topsoil to erosion! How is this possibly making anybody or anything healthy? How is this a return to living in harmony with nature like humans have done pre industrialization?
You know the feeling when someone looks you in the face and tells a blatant lie then turns around and does the exact opposite of what they said? The first feeling I experience is confusion, then as things become clearer that feeling turns to anger. I believe that we can create a world in which humans live in balance with nature and we live healthy lives…I am a person that channels emotions into actions, instead of acting on my anger I focus even harder on my own goals and mission. Here on the farm we are able to tend this piece of land the way we think is the best, we enjoy the fruits of our labor which includes an incredible amount of biodiversity of wildlife, clean flowing water and fresh air, healthy nutrient dense foods that taste amazing and a family and community that respects one another and shares a common goal of a truly healthy and healing community and planet. Do I think our farm will single handedly fix all of the worlds or even our communities problems? No, but I do think we can create a model that can be replicated and unite with other like-minded folks to forge ahead with a grass roots revolution that is not tied to the whims of corrupt politicians!
-Kelsey