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PORTSIDE CULTURE

USDA’S DEI PURGE: HOW TRUMP AND ROLLINS ARE RESHAPING AMERICAN
AGRICULTURE  
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Sky Chadde
September 16, 2025
Investigate Midwest
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_ The Trump administration is decrying diversity, equity and
inclusion initiatives. The move is hurting communities and undermining
its own goals for agriculture. _

The Vicksburg Community Garden celebrated a plentiful harvest, with
rows of corn, squash, tomatoes, peas, herbs, peppers, and watermelons
ready for U-Pick Days in June 2024 in Vicksburg,, investigate Midwest

 

In Vicksburg, Mississippi, the south end of town near the municipal
airport has no grocery stores, no food pantries. Mired in a federally
recognized food desert, nearby families struggled to obtain healthy
food. Then, in 2019, in a once-empty lot, a community garden sprouted.
Families could pick their own blueberries, peas and okra.

The nonprofit behind the garden, Shape Up Mississippi, aimed not only
to address food insecurity in the predominantly Black neighborhood but
also to promote the agriculture profession to children through an
annual event. Farmers gathered at the garden to showcase their
equipment, and local U.S. Department of Agriculture employees taught
kids about soil health.

But Shape Up had to cancel the event this year, and for the past
several months, it’s limited the number of days residents can
harvest. Last year, it received $10,000 through the USDA, but the
grant was unexpectedly axed in February. Shape Up was forced to
curtail services.

Linda Fondren, Shape Up’s leader, said losing the grant will
particularly hurt young mothers who relied on the green space. “All
of a sudden,” she said, “they found something that was working for
them, and then it got taken away.”

Shape Up’s garden was caught in the political crosshairs of a
dramatic shift at the USDA. Since assuming power, the Trump
administration has cudgeled what it deems “wasteful” spending on
projects related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI. Shape
Up’s community garden, which serves a community that is
three-quarters Black, qualified.

The USDA’s purge has resulted in a significant loss of funding for
programs increasing access to fruits and vegetables, and some creating
pathways for more Americans to enter an industry with rapidly aging
farmers. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has claimed the USDA has
ended more than $148 million in DEI funding, though who has been
affected is difficult to verify because Investigate Midwest’s
request for a detailed list has not been fulfilled.

The concept of DEI is intended to promote practices, mainly in the
workplace, that address systemic discrimination against racial and
gender minorities. The Trump administration has used it as a blanket
term for funding that benefits minorities. For instance, in March,
Rollins explicitly tied canceled funding to gender, saying a program
— she didn’t specify — was cut because it was for “food
justice for trans people in New York and San Francisco.” In July,
the USDA said it would end race and gender-based financial support.

Targeting DEI is a “red herring,” said Thomas Burrell, the
president of the Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association. “It
speaks volumes, to me at least, that you intend to continue to
discriminate against Black farmers.”

The USDA did not respond to several requests for comment sent over the
past several weeks.

Some organizations that lost funding did not return requests for
comment, including one that feared doing so would jeopardize future
grants with the USDA. 

The effort to eliminate DEI funding could impair one of Rollins’
goals: recruiting more farmers. 

The average age of farmers, 58 years old, concerns her, she said at
her confirmation hearing. “If we really think we will have a
sustainable, thriving agriculture community in 20 or 30 years after we
have gone to meet our maker, we have to reverse that trend,” she
said.

But cutting off support for minority farmers could create more
barriers to those interested in agriculture, said Michaela
Hoffelmeyer, an assistant professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison who has studied the agricultural workforce.

“It’s counterintuitive to not invest in this group of farmers
because these people are farmers, first and foremost, regardless of
their race, gender, sexuality,” Hoffelmeyer said. “I think it does
raise some questions about if we’re really supporting all farmers
and what that means long-term for our food supply.”

The cuts also likely affect endeavors Rollins has vocally supported.
Organizations with canceled funding helped connect community members
with small farms, promote the purchase of locally grown fresh fruit
and vegetables, and push healthy lifestyles. Access to healthy food is
the ostensible desire of the Make America Healthy Again movement, and
Rollins has described herself as a “MAHA mom.”

The administration’s efforts have already had a chilling effect
internally. Charles Dodson, a recently retired civil servant who
studied racial disparities in department lending, believes his former
team at the USDA is now too fearful to communicate with him. After
Trump assumed office, he said, he tried to contact his former
colleagues to check on their progress. Just one answered, to say they
were keeping their head down.

Ike Leslie, a berry farmer and researcher based in Vermont, has been
hit particularly hard by the USDA’s cuts. In 2023, Leslie, who is
queer and trans, won a large USDA research grant, but the money was
frozen for months until early September. To receive the funding, they
had to remove all references the administration defined as DEI.

Leslie also had a $45,000 climate resiliency grant canceled. The Biden
administration created a program to reward climate-smart practices on
mostly small farms, the kind that queer farmers and farmers of color
typically operate. But the Trump administration ended the program.

The defunding has set their farm back years, Leslie said. They’ve
had to delay buying new glasses and new tires for their pickup truck.

“I’m avoiding health care and other costs,” they said. “This
is the reality that we’re in. When you take people’s bread, they
suffer.”

On Jan. 20, Trump’s first day back in office, he signed an executive
order ending support for DEI training and staff positions. Having a
“chief diversity officer” or an “equity action plan” amounted
to “immense public waste and shameful discrimination,” the order
stated. “That ends today.”

Days later, staff in the USDA’s finance office began searching for
DEI-related grants to terminate. When Rollins took over Feb. 13, she
directed staff to prioritize “merit” and “color-blind
policies.” Any funding that appeared to contradict her directive was
reported to her office, according to court records.

By the department’s own admission in legal filings, a broad brush
was used to define “DEI.” By April, the USDA had frozen funding
for more than 300 projects. However, after a judge’s injunction, the
USDA was forced to release some money. In early May, the USDA told the
court that only 34 projects remained “frozen for DEI.” (The case
is ongoing.)

More cuts followed, however. In mid-June, Rollins announced that
“more than 145 awards,” totaling about $148 million, were
canceled. “Putting American Farmers First means cutting the millions
of dollars that are being wasted on woke DEI propaganda,” Rollins
said in a press release.

More cuts followed, however. In mid-June, Rollins announced that
“more than 145 awards,” totaling about $148 million, were
canceled. “Putting American Farmers First means cutting the millions
of dollars that are being wasted on woke DEI propaganda,” Rollins
said in a press release.

The administration has also attempted to import white farmers to the
U.S. Trump has falsely claimed white farmers in South Africa, which
used to operate a brutally racist system of apartheid, are facing a
“genocide.” Then, the administration created a refugee program,
which a political appointee acknowledged privately was intended just
for the country’s white people, according to Reuters.

Rollins has decried the mere mention of race or gender. Before
becoming agriculture secretary, she chastised the “race-obsessed
press” for commemorating the first time Black quarterbacks faced
each other in the Super Bowl. Historically, Black players were not
deemed smart enough to play the game’s most valuable position.

Early in her tenure, Rollins singled out tomato seeds as evidence of
DEI’s purportedly insipid creep into society. In a video posted to
X, she showed seed packets adorned with the phrase, “Growing
diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility at USDA.” With a
concerned look, Rollins said, “This is what we’re fighting.” She
then threw the packets in a trash can.

A day later, on a conservative radio show, Rollins cast blame on the
Biden administration. “I guess they thought tomatoes were racist,”
she said.

Rollins has also dismissed diversity efforts related to hiring. During
her nomination hearing, Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat,
asked her if she’d commit to recruiting more Black employees.
Rollins did not answer directly and said she’d recruit the “best
workforce in the history” of the USDA. (All of her high-level
political appointees are white.)

At other times, she’s said USDA hiring is now a “meritocracy.”
At a June hearing, U.S. Rep. Joshua Jackson, an Illinois Democrat,
asked her if the department had a written definition of merit. “I am
not aware of that,” she replied. 

One person who appeared to have significant influence over USDA
decision-making was Gavin Kliger, a DOGE operative who spearheaded
funding cuts. Kliger’s resume shows no agricultural experience, and
in emails to staff, he demonstrated a misunderstanding of how critical
soil health is for farmers. Kliger has also promoted white supremacist
and misogynistic content on X, according to Reuters.

The USDA’s history of denying support to farmers of color long
predates the current administration.

In the 1930s, the department facilitated the creation of county
committees that voted on how to disperse federal funds, which
essentially guaranteed white farmers benefited. The system earned the
USDA the nickname “The Last Plantation
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(The system still exists. In 2023, the USDA released a report finding
that, because minorities were often excluded from serving, the
committees “often cripple the economic livelihood of minority
farmers.”)

In 1999, in the landmark Pigford v. Glickman case, a judge ruled the
department denied loans to Black farmers because of their race and
ordered restitution. In 2010, a second round of restorative payments
were issued. In both cases, the USDA did not admit its discrimination.

After Pigford, a series of lawsuits alleging USDA discrimination
against women, Native American and Hispanic farmers followed. In 2011,
the department announced a plan to resolve the claims.

Under President Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack pushed a
narrative that the department was addressing systemic racism. For
instance, the USDA claimed the number of Black farmers had increased
between 2007 and 2012. According to an investigation by The Counter, a
newsroom focused on agriculture and food, the figures were misleading.

Internally, race was a third rail, regardless of which party
controlled the White House, said Dodson, the recently retired USDA
civil servant who started his career at the agency in the mid-1990s. 

In 2013, he published a paper examining the USDA’s role in lending
disparities. His analysis showed Black farmers typically have worse
credit histories than white farmers — a result consistent with
systemic racism — that hindered their eligibility for federal loans.
When examining several years of data, he concluded there was “no
evidence” of prejudicial behavior by USDA.

Still, he said, his superiors yelled at him. “The pushback was so
extreme,” he said. “It took me aback.” He dropped further
inquiries.

When Trump was elected the first time, the USDA’s lending program
disproportionately backed white male farmers. Between 2017 and 2021,
the department rejected fewer loan applications from
whites, according to data obtained by CNN
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At the same time, the department rejected far more loan applications
from Black, Asian and Hispanic farmers.

The first Trump administration also targeted young queer people
interested in farming. In 2018, Trump officials pressured 4-H, a youth
organization for beginning farmers, to drop a proposal welcoming LGBTQ
members, according to the Des Moines Register
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A 4-H leader in Iowa who supported the proposal was fired.

When Biden was elected, he placed more emphasis on race and gender.
Dodson formed a team to research racial disparities, and in 2021 USDA
surveyed, for the first time, agricultural producers’ sexual
orientation and gender identity. In 2022, Congress passed the
Inflation Reduction Act into law, which created the Discrimination
Financial Assistance Program to directly pay Black farmers. (A group
of white farmers contested the program in court.)

Overall, though, the USDA has struggled to reckon with racial
disparities. Once, during the Biden administration, when reviewing a
study from another department agency about minority farmers, Dodson
said his supervisor resisted its conclusions. When he asked why, the
supervisor replied, “I just don’t think Black farmers are very
good managers.”

Dodson, like many USDA employees, grew up in rural America, and he
heard similar comments. “You’ve got a culture at USDA that
reflects that attitude,” he said.

The effects can be felt on the ground. For Black farmers, attempting
to get a loan from the USDA is like trying to negotiate in a different
language, said Tiffany Bellfield El-Amin, the leader of the Kentucky
Black Farmers Association.

In recent years, more of her members have begun building a
relationship with the local office of the USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service, which helps farmers maintain soil health, she
said. The uptick correlates with a Black representative being
available.

As part of the USDA’s DEI initiatives, the representative worked to
establish cooperative agreements — for instance, the USDA might
partner with a historically Black college to increase land access —
that brought more Black farmers into the fold.

“There’s a big language barrier between Black folks and these
agencies,” she said. “I’m going to say this respectfully: I
think folks in office know there’s a barrier and sometimes do not go
outside themselves, which is why we have these DEI initiatives.”

_John McCracken contributed to this story._

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