Clash continues around federal ag funding, impacting Illinois
[March 21, 2025]
By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently
slashed over $1 billion in federal funding for schools and food banks.
Pritzker addressed concerns Wednesday about how Illinois will handle
food insecurity in light of these cuts.
“We don't have what right now looks like about $11 billion that we will
lose to the state of Illinois. We don't have $11 billion to fill in the
gaps on education, health care,” said Pritzker. “Again, I want to remind
everybody what the purpose of all of that is, of taking all that away
is, it's to give big tax cuts to people who don't need them.”
The USDA recently cut funding for the Local Food Purchase Assistance
Cooperative Agreement Program. Traci Barkley, Sola Gratia Farm director,
said the program ending after a year was not “a part of the plan.”
“Farmers that were hiring, investing, stretching, knowing that they
could get to that next level and then serve our communities long-term
with good, healthy food,” said Barkley. “I know there have been layoffs.
I know there are people that are not getting the food that they counted
on.”
Separately, state Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, criticized the
complaints.
“It's one of those things, when you start to trim the pork, the pigs
start to squeal,” said Miller.
Former gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey also took aim at Pritzker
for focusing only on northern Illinois, saying, “Since when does
‘traveling the state’ exclude the area south of Champaign? Come further
south and tell us how great your ideas are. I’ll supply plenty of
‘farmers’ for attendance.”
Pritzker reflected on the long-term consequences of funding cuts, noting
that Illinois has seen similar damages in the past.
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker during a discussion about agriculture
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
“The damage that gets done isn't just during the year that you've
lost those dollars. It gets done sometimes permanently, and we saw
that. We had big programs that just went away in the state of
Illinois back in 2016, 2017,” said Pritzker. “Unfortunately, Donald
Trump has a whole history of breaching contracts when he was a
business person.”
Pritzker called for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
and conservation programs to be included in the federal farm bill
and criticized Trump.
“If they don't get a farm bill that includes SNAP and these
conservation programs, these [programs] could disappear,” said
Pritzker. “I don't want to say permanently because we'll all work to
rebuild, but it takes years, and even in Illinois, we haven't been
able to restore everything that was lost.”
Miller, however, criticized the farm bill, claiming that 85% of it
now focuses on food assistance rather than supporting farmers.
On the issue of undocumented agricultural workers, Pritzker said he
hasn’t heard of any large-scale ICE actions targeting them but
acknowledged that such deportations have happened elsewhere.
Miller emphasized the legal process for migrant workers, saying,
"there's a process and the people that use migrant workers, they
know how to do it.”
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