Inside the USDA Shakeup and What It Means for Farmers

Written by Dan Kane, Director of Mad! Science

Apr 23, 2025

In recent months, a series of policy changes, funding freezes, and administrative shifts have affected how the USDA operates and delivers support to farmers and ranchers. As these developments continue to unfold, we’ve pulled together this overview to help make sense of what’s happened so far, what programs are affected, and what it could mean for agricultural communities across the country.

This isn’t the kind of story we typically tell at Mad Agriculture—but the scale and speed of these changes demanded our attention. It’s been difficult even for those working closest to the land to track what’s unfolding. So we’ve pulled together what we know: a snapshot of the current state of the USDA, the ripple effects we’re seeing on farms, and what it may signal about where things are headed.

We’ve already heard from farmers feeling the weight of these shifts—canceled contracts, delayed payments, fewer touchpoints with trusted USDA staff. If you’re one of them, we want to hear from you. We’re currently connected with journalists and media outlets looking to share firsthand stories from the field. If you're open to sharing your experience, please fill out [this form]—and we’ll be in touch.

Following a series of Executive Orders issued by President Trump shortly after taking office in January 2025, the Office of Management and Budget ordered all federal funding agencies to freeze funding. USDA froze funding for an array of programs and existing contracts so they could review them for consistency with the policy goals of the administration. Review of a few key programs has been completed—in some cases funding has been released, and in others it’s been canceled. But for many, uncertainty still remains, and potential shifts in priorities mean these programs may change or become unavailable to producers in the near future.

On top of funding freezes, staff cuts to the USDA will likely start to reduce its ability to deliver on grant program objectives, and cuts to international food aid and tariffs are creating market uncertainty for farmers. Simultaneously, negotiations over the Farm Bill and the federal budget could lead to big changes in the level of funding directed to key programs and a shift in USDA’s priorities.

USDA PROGRAMS

Several key grant programs managed by the USDA were frozen in January in response to President Trump’s executive orders. Here’s where those programs stand as of the date of this post.

EQIP, CSP, ACEP: These programs provide critical funding directly to farmers to fund implementation of conservation practices on-farm. Funding for existing contracts under these programs was initially frozen. On February 20, 2025, the USDA released about $20 million in funds for existing contracts. But that amount only represents a small share of the total amount contracted with producers through these programs over the past two years, and additional funding to these programs previously allocated through the Inflation Reduction Act is still being withheld (source). Through our Cultivating Conservation project, we’ve documented the role these programs play in helping farmers adopt conservation practices.
Rural Energy for America Program (REAP): This program provides farmers with grants and loans to purchase renewable energy and energy efficiency equipment for their farms (e.g. solar panels) (source). Funding for this program was initially frozen, but on March 26, 2025, USDA contacted awardees with a request to voluntarily amend their applications to better align with the President’s Executive Order on energy within 30 days. But to date, awardees that have elected not to change their applications have had funds unfrozen and disbursed.
Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA): LFPA and a related program, Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, facilitate the purchase of local food from farmers by states and tribal nations for use in school food programs and local food banks. In March, USDA announced that funds for FY2025 were unfrozen, but that the programs were being terminated starting in FY2026 (October 1, 2025) and all existing contracts would be terminated.
Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP): RCPP provides nonprofits, state and local governments, farmer associations, and conservation districts with funds to work within a target region with farmers and ranchers to implement conservation practices and deliver targeted conservation outcomes. Previously this program had been a relatively small portion of USDA conservation spending, but its budget was substantially increased in FY2023-24. RCPP awardees for FY2025 were announced in October 2024, but funds have yet to be disbursed for these projects, and a notice or funding opportunity for FY2026 has not yet been released. Among conservation programs, RCPP received a particularly substantial increase in funding via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the fate of which is now uncertain.
Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities (PCSC): PCSC is a program focused on supporting climate smart agricultural practices and the development of programs, financial, and market instruments that could incentivize and sustain the implementation of these practices on-farm. PCSC projects were mid-stream when funding was frozen in January 2025. On April 14, 2025, the USDA announced that it was cancelling PCSC and overhauling it to be called the Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative (source). Existing projects were or are being reviewed on three criteria: (1) a minimum of 65% of federal funds must go to producers; (2) grant recipients must have enrolled at least one producer as of December 31, 2024; and (3) grant recipients must have made a payment to at least one producer as of December 31, 2024. Projects that don’t meet those criteria will have the chance to reapply until June 30, 2025, but costs incurred prior to April 13 2025 will be reimbursed. Even still, there are concerns that this program will go away or be dramatically reduced given that it’s funded through the USDA Commodity Credit Corporation, which was used during the first Trump administration to provide economic relief to farmers impacted by tariffs.

To date, even though some of this uncertainty has been resolved, several farmers and other organizations have still been impacted and will continue to be through cancelled funds and continued uncertainty.

REDUCTIONS IN FORCE

In addition to freezing outgoing federal funds, the Trump administration and its newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have aimed to dramatically reduce the federal workforce. Initial efforts included both mass layoffs of probationary employees (i.e. staff with one or year less of experience at the agency) and the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), which allowed staff to voluntarily resign while still collecting pay and benefits through the end of the federal fiscal year, September 30, 2025. In government, these staff cuts are called Reductions in Force (RIFs).

RIFs have gone back and forth, with some people being fired and then rehired, lawsuits, and the DRP being rolled out twice now. At the start of the Trump administration the USDA employed nearly 100,000 people. Here’s a timeline of events thus far.

Probationary employee layoffs: In February, the USDA laid off 5,714 probationary employees across a wide range of sub-agencies and programs. The Trump administration focused on firing probationary employees as their junior status means they have fewer employment protections. These layoffs were immediately challenged in court by federal employee unions and the USDA was forced to rehire these employees on March 5, 2025 for 45 days. A week later, the USDA had placed all these employees on administrative leave with pay, meaning those nearly 6,000 employees have not been allowed to work since. (source)
Deferred Resignation Program: Official numbers have yet to be released, but across both rounds of the DRP a reported 16,000 employees have opted to leave the USDA (source). Resignations included employees across all sub-agencies, but they were greatest in the US Forest Service (around 3,000) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (around 1,200). (source)
Future RIFs: In addition to the firings and resignations to date, the USDA has signalled that it will continue its efforts to reduce its total number of employees and consolidate/move its offices. No specific numbers have been released as yet, but chatter from USDA employees suggests that the Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Agricultural Research Service will be particularly hard hit. (source)

So, to date, the USDA’s workforce has been effectively reduced by about 22,000, or just over 20%, with likely much greater RIFs to come.

THE FARM BILL AND FEDERAL BUDGET

While all this activity is going on, big changes are likely coming for both the US Farm Bill and the federal budget more broadly. The Farm Bill is a piece of omnibus legislation that covers nearly all food, agriculture, and natural resource policy, including funding for USDA programs and agencies. It was first enacted in 1933 and is usually revised and re-enacted every 5 years.

The current Farm Bill is the 2018 version, which has been extended twice and is now set to expire on September 30, 2025. Despite draft proposals and frameworks developed by both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, Congress has not reached agreement on a new bill.

Two key issues have contributed to the legislative gridlock. First, the largest share of Farm Bill spending goes to federal nutrition assistance programs, primarily the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). While Democrats broadly support maintaining or expanding SNAP, some Republican lawmakers—particularly fiscal conservatives—have pushed to reduce its funding or move it into separate legislation. Democrats oppose this, fearing that delinking SNAP from the Farm Bill could make the program more vulnerable to future cuts.

Second, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) enacted in 2022 provided over $19 billion in additional funding for USDA conservation programs with climate-related goals, such as improving soil carbon sequestration through cover cropping and rotational grazing. President Trump and some Republicans have called for its repeal, while a subset of Republicans would prefer to maintain all or a portion of it as it provides funds to invest in renewable energy and agriculture in their districts. Some legislators have proposed folding in the funding allocated to USDA programs by the IRA into the Farm Bill’s overall budget so that those funds are guaranteed to be carried over. But doing so would not necessarily mean they’re used for conservation programs but could instead be used to defray costs for other programs. So far, disagreement over this integration and its implications for conservation priorities has further stalled progress.

Until these key issues are resolved, it is unlikely that a comprehensive Farm Bill will move forward in either chamber.

At the same time Farm Bill negotiations have been going on, both House and Senate Republicans recently passed their budget resolutions for FY2026. With both resolutions passed, both legislative bodies now move to budget reconciliation, a special legislative process by which the Republicans, who hold the majority, could make major changes to spending on Farm Bill programs without changing the Farm Bill text itself. Plus, the House budget resolution includes instructions to slash USDA spending by $230 billion over 10 years.

WHAT’S IT ALL MEAN?

The impact of these cuts on farmers and the ability of the USDA to deliver services hasn’t been fully realized yet, but it’s certain that they will cause significant disruption of programs. While some funding freezes have been reversed, uncertainty remains for farmers receiving support and investment through PCSC programs, and farmers who previously benefited from LFPA have lost a sales outlet.

Many of the probationary employees now on leave are in critical, farmer-facing sub-agencies, including the NRCS and FSA (source). Others are in sub-agencies that provide crucial services, such as the USFS which manages the majority of the nation’s wildfire fighting capacity, and APHIS, which is responsible for preventing the spread of animal and plant diseases and the entry of invasive pests into the country. Staffing changes are coming even though these sub-agencies were already arguably understaffed and under-resourced to meet existing needs.

Many of the conservation programs that are particularly threatened by potential changes to the Farm Bill are popular with farmers and ranchers and are consistently over-subscribed. They provide a critical source of low-risk, no-risk investment for farmers to implement conservation practices and technologies that have an outsize impact on working lands and our natural resources. Through our Cultivating Conservation project, we’ve seen firsthand how these programs support real change on the ground—and how vital they are to the long-term health of both farms and ecosystems.

SHARE YOUR STORY

If you’re a farmer or rancher navigating the fallout from these changes—whether through a canceled contract, delayed payment, or loss of a trusted USDA contact—we want to hear from you.

We’re currently working with journalists and media outlets who are looking to spotlight firsthand stories from the field. While we can’t guarantee that every story will be published, there’s strong interest in hearing directly from those most affected—and we want to help connect farmers who are willing to speak up with those looking to listen.

If you're open to sharing your experience, please take a moment to [fill out this form] and we’ll be in touch.

WHO TO FOLLOW

If you’re interested in keeping up with news on the USDA, here are a few solid sources that we look to:

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
DTN Progressive Farmer, particularly Chris Clayton
Politico E&E news
Agri-Pulse
Reuters, particularly Leah Douglas
Government Executive, a news website specifically focused on the federal workforce