The Trump administration’s slash-and-burn approach to federal programs will make our food less safe, worsen the climate impacts of food production, threaten clean water, and harm rural communities. Even programs with bipartisan support that help farmers and children aren’t immune to the administration’s destructive chaos.
In March the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut over $1 billion in funding to schools and food banks to buy food from local farms. The move amplifies the corporate hold over our food system by forcing these institutions to buy from industrial producers, and it makes it harder to provide nutritious food to children, weakens local economies, and hurts small farmers and tribes who provide food to our communities.
It’s a huge blow to children, seniors, Tribal members, and the broader community, who’ll be eating less healthy, corporate food shipped from far away. It definitely won’t “make America healthy again.”
The future of nutritious and sustainable food looks uncertain right now. While we continue to fight these assaults on our local food systems and school meal programs at the federal level, we can also resist with actions that build support for local sustainable growers and nutritional security at the community level.
The Center is launching a new Wildlife-Friendly Guide to Sustainable School Food to add to the arsenal of resources on positive actions for parents, students, school staff, and local communities trying to improve access to nutritious meals and wildlife-friendly foods. Suggestions in the guide can be implemented locally while we work to reinstate support for these programs at the federal level.
