Trump food aid cuts eliminate key income source from some smaller Minnesota farms

It’s still early in the season at Cedar Crate Farm in rural Waldorf, but Dan Zimmerli and a few of his employees are already getting their hands dirty, digging up and picking vegetables for this weekend’s farmers market in Mankato.

“I got two kinds of scallions this year, just like your typical, you know, white scallion,” Zimmerli boasts as he picks them. “And then I couldn’t resist. There’s these purple scallions, and they’re beautiful.”

Zimmerli, 38, and his crew are also harvesting an assortment of herbs, lettuce, cabbage and kohlrabi, among other produce staples.

“So, these are the first carrots of the year, which I’m excited about,” Zimmereli said with a shovel in hand on a recent sunny and warm day. “We do normally harvest most of this with a tractor, but in order to get our tool into the ground, we have to do a little bit by hand.”

The veggies and greens are grown underneath plastic tarp-covered tunnels, which allows them to be planted in early March, extending Minnesota’s relatively short growing season on this 3 acre parcel he farms with his wife Lara. This harvest, Zimmerli said, is already better than last summer’s when record-breaking rainfall and flooding in southern Minnesota destroyed thousands of dollars worth of his crops.

“I thought we were done for. I thought we were gonna have to try to buy back CSAs (community supported agriculture subscriptions) and that I was gonna have to get a job in town,” Zimmerli said. “I’m glad I was wrong about that. We were not done for.”

What saved the farm was a federal food aid initiative called the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, or LFPA. It provides grants to schools, food shelves, senior centers and other groups that feed the hungry so they can buy produce from local farmers.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture says the state received $8.14 million from the Biden administration last year for the program. The MDA then awarded 55 grants awarded to non-profit organizations, tribes and government entities, to purchase food sourced from more than 180 farmers and suppliers statewide, including Zimmerli’s Cedar Crate Farm.

Dozens of more farmers also supplied food from purchases through food hubs and cooperatives, and this food has been distributed through more than 94 distribution locations, including: food shelves, social service programs, healthcare organizations, senior living centers and living facilities, preschools and manufactured home communities, according to the MDA. 

Minnesota had signed an agreement for about $4.7 million for another round of the federal LFPA program.

But the Trump administration eliminated the program in March. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox News that the LFPA is a COVID-era initiative that is ”non-essential.

But Zimmerli disagrees, saying even though it was a small percentage of his income, every dollar counts. Especially after experiencing one of the most tumultuous summers of his farming career, he realized there didn’t seem to be a safety net for smaller family farms like his. 

“I think that kind of underscores how at a federal level, farms like mine are basically just not supported at all and you look at the ending of the federal LFPA program,” Zimmerli said. “That’s just kind of like the cherry on top of where the values lie for the USDA.”

Where things are now

Last week, Gov. Tim Walz signed agricultural legislation that includes a provision to replace a little of that federal funding. The state level program is being funded at $700,000 per year for fiscal years 2026 through 2029 — a total of $2.8 million. 

State Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said it’s not a lot, but it’s a step in the right direction. 

“I am very pleased with the legislature,” Petersen said. “The bill and the support that they had because we have things in there for biofuels and livestock farmers, but we also have the state LFPA, Farm to School programs, urban agriculture grants, all types of different things to fit agriculture for all of Minnesota.”

Minnesota Democrats criticized the Trump administration’s cut to food aid. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told MPR News it’ll hurt small, family-run farms and rural communities the most.

“It is the scariest time since I’ve been in the Senate for agriculture, and a lot of it has to do with these kinds of cuts,” Klobuchar said. “So for many reasons, these cuts are really concerning for our state.”

Breathing room 

As Dan Zimmerli continues to harvest and prepare for the farmers market he says he’s relieved that the state is replacing some of the federal funds, but he still feels uneasy about the future.

“I think the LFPA program at a federal level was a way to provide almost like some breathing room for small farms like mine, where there was just a little more  certainty, in an uncertain profession,” he said. “You’re never guaranteed to get a crop of anything.”

Zimmerli said the one lesson he’s learned is to never underestimate how resilient small farms can be. Whether it’s floods, droughts or cuts to government funding, he’s used to the unknowns.