Farmers rallied in Augusta Wednesday to protest funding cuts, contract suspensions and staff layoffs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that they said threaten the livelihood of Maine's small farms.
The event came days after the Trump administration canceled another program that was slated to provide millions of dollars to help make Maine farms more resilient to the changing climate.
The rally began with a rare sight, at least for Augusta — more than a dozen tractors of all sizes and ages, plus other farm vehicles, rumbling down the streets surrounding the Maine State House. The 100 to 200 rallygoers then gathered outside of the building to hear from farmers upset about the recent changes as part of President Trump's cost-cutting and re-prioritizing.
"We don't need to add more reasons why farmers don't make it," said Seth Yentes with North Branch Farm, an organic beef and produce operation in Monroe. "Our government needs to stop supporting billionaires and start supporting farmers."
The event was led by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. MOFGA executive director Sarah Alexander said Maine has lost $4 million to purchase food from local farms for schools and food banks. Alexander also said the Trump administration is holding up $12 million worth of contracts that have already been approved by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.
"The cuts to USDA staff in every Maine county have been at least 20 percent of the workforce," Alexander said, eliciting boos from the crowd. "This is not OK."
Some funding was frozen only to be later released. And other contracts appeared to have been paused by not yet canceled. But earlier this week, the USDA did cancel a grant program to encourage more climate-friendly farming techniques.
Maine projects were slated to receive $3 million from the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. The Trump administration dubbed it a "Biden-era climate slush fund" that spent far too much on overhead, although the USDA said some grant recipients may still receive money if enough money is slated to go to farmers.
“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement earlier this week while announcing the cancellation. “The concerns of farmers took a backseat during the Biden Administration. During my short time as secretary, I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity.”
But Alyssa Adkins of Farthest Field Farm in Freeport said USDA grants, like the Smart-Climate program, helped her and her partner start to build a farm better able to weather Maine's changing climate.
"The Climate-Smart commodities grant was a lifesaver in this respect," Adkins said. "It helped with these crucial supplies in our second growing season and we had been counting on it in this, our third season, and beyond especially as we lost our off-farm income."
There was clearly an anti-Trump undercurrent at Wednesday's rally. Some held signs declaring "Fund farms, not fascists" and "Farms against Trump." Multiple speakers lashed out at Elon Musk's DOGE program while accusing federal agricultural policy — under Trump and previous presidents — of favoring large-scale agriculture at the expense of small farms.
"Just yesterday our so-called president made a statement that America will take care of its farmers and help those affected by his ridiculous, poorly managed tariff war," said Steve Sinisi, who runs Old Crow Ranch, a livestock farm in Durham. "Funny how taxpayers can bail out large, mono-crop, CAFO corporate farms that already receive subsidies. But as small farmers of America, we have to fight our own government to get the funding already approved by Congress for programs that have been around and used efficiently for decades."
Later in the program, Sinisi presented Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree with a five-gallon bucket containing hog manure, although he used a different word than manure.
"I told Ms. Pingree, when she's ready I'm ready: the spreaders going to Washington," Sinisi said to laughs and applause from the crowd.
Pingree, an organic farmer who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, has herself joked about inviting farmers to dump manure on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in response to the changes at USDA. So she laughed at the symbolic gift before launching into her own criticism of Trump, his tariffs, DOGE and the recent cuts.
"But really what is wrong with the USDA?" said Pingree, who represents Maine's 1st Congressional District. "What is wrong with this administration to say they believe in farmers and that they believe in the process that we've got going on here, but then they break these contracts?"
The other three members of Maine's congressional delegation — Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King — have also criticized cuts to USDA programs in Maine.
The USDA did not respond to a request for comment about the rally.
The agency has also attempted to freeze some administrative funding for nutrition programs in Maine after the department said the state violated the non-discrimination law known as Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls' and women's sports. A federal judge ordered that money released, however, while the court hears the lawsuit filed by Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey challenging the USDA decision.
