The Trump administration announced this week it is ending a program meant to give smaller food production businesses a leg up against corporations. Those helping North Dakota producers say the sudden move leaves them behind. The USDA says Regional Food Business Centers, created by the Biden administration, will discontinue several years before their funding expires.

Cheryal Hills, executive director, Region Five Development Commission, a leading partner for the business center that covers the Dakotas and Minnesota, warned disadvantaged food producers, including independent farms, will lose out on marketing guidance and aid for equipment.

“We were all moving the dial on collectively utilizing the resources to the best of our ability to make sure that taxpayer dollars were spent efficiently in this space,” she said. “This was collaboration at its best.”

Hills further warned that smaller producers and support groups working in isolation leads to corporate agricultural firms dominating food production. Researchers say that will result in more commodity crops and fewer fruits and vegetables. The USDA has said it will honor active grant commitments through next spring, but claims the program needs too much planning and isn’t financially sustainable.

Hills said they are aware the grants were only meant to last five years and added that the idea was to make regional food systems stronger so they don’t need as much help. Hills pushed back against the USDA’s claim that other regional centers were moving too slowly, arguing current leadership left them in the dark.

“They failed in setting expectations for those centers who had not launched yet to give deadlines and repercussions for not meeting those deadlines,” she said.

Funding for the centers has been frozen since January, forcing farmers who were previously awarded grants to spend out-of-pocket until they’re reimbursed. Hills says the move runs counter to the Trump administration’s goal of improving rural prosperity and making the nation healthier. A North Dakota project, part of the business center, gave a family farm resources to expand its market for honey products.