Updated December 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM EST
Farmer Brad Smith grows organic vegetables like tomatoes, onions and potatoes and sells his produce at markets across central Michigan.
Smith, who has been in business for 11 years, depends on federal support to keep his operation running.
"Everybody's always like, 'In the apocalypse, we're going to come to your farm,'" Smith said. "And I'm like, 'No, we rely on so many things — like we are not self-sufficient, that's for sure."
But a year of tumult in the agriculture industry — due in part to federal funding cuts and President Trump's tariffs — has led Smith and many farmers like him to question what government resources will be available to support his farm going forward.
"It does seem like there are more and more things that we used to think were safe and now I don't know what's going to happen next," Smith said. "There's uncertainty over what's going to be the state of the country in the next three or four years, and I've already noticed a drop in sales over the last year."
Trump recently announced $12 billion in support for farming operations affected by tariffs, but many farmers are pushing for more federal dollars to provide much-needed stability. Others, especially young farmers, are turning away from the government, instead relying on local networks for assistance.
It's a growing divide among farmers that alarms farm policy advocates and threatens to erode the relationship between the government and the people who grow America's food.
"2025 has been a particularly chaotic year," said Mike Lavender, policy director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. "And farming is a venture where you want to limit chaos."
A shrinking federal support system
The Trump administration maintains that supporting America's farmers is a priority. Last week, when Trump announced the billions in federal relief for farmers, he praised tariffs — which are collected from U.S. taxpayers — as a revenue generator for the country and said the aid package would offset any negative impacts.
"We're really taking in trillions of dollars [from tariffs]," Trump said at the White House. "What we're doing is we're taking a relatively small portion of that and we're going to be giving and providing it to the farmers in economic assistance. And we love our farmers. As you know, farmers like me."
For Smith, tariffs have meant more expensive inputs, like building materials for new construction projects around his farm. For Minnesota farmer Brenda Rudolph, they've cut exports of her soybeans.
But tariffs have been just one cause of uncertainty for farmers.
Rudolph also sells meat directly to U.S. consumers as president of a local farmers market and said she has felt squeezed domestically this year.
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cut about $1 billion from programs that helped schools and food banks buy from local farms.
In July, as part of their sweeping spending bill, Republicans in Congress passed new work requirements and eligibility rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that will result in millions of people losing benefits, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Rudolph had to let go of her market's SNAP educator due to existing budget constraints. Because of the larger SNAP cuts, she expects less money flowing into farmers' hands in the coming years.
The last straw for Rudolph was the government shutdown, which lasted 43 days from October into mid-November. During the shutdown, the government froze the disbursal of payments to SNAP for the first time. It made her cynical about what support the government is committed to providing for her community.
"With farming, every year is always different and every farm is different," Rudolph said. "So that's not new, but what is new is the inconsistency. ... It's not just one little area of it that's disrupted."
Lavender, of the sustainable agricultural coalition, said many farmers participating in USDA grants were also shaken by the shutdown. Many USDA cost-sharing programs designed to bolster rural farm communities and protect natural resources require farmers to pay out of pocket for costs with a promise that the government will reimburse them on a set schedule. During a shutdown, those contracts aren't processed and payments aren't made.
"We're talking thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars when that check doesn't come through, because the government is closed," Lavender said. "You can quickly imagine the ramifications: Some folks maybe put it on their credit card, or maybe some folks can't make their mortgage payment."
Beyond SNAP and the shutdown, a quarter of all U.S. farm operations participated in USDA direct payment programs, according to the most recent federal data. In 2024, subsidies — which include direct payments, crop insurance and loans — totaled 5.9% of farm income.
Some certain funding initiatives have also been axed under the Trump administration. In April, hundreds of Biden-era grants were canceled just ahead of the spring planting season. In June, the USDA further slashed funding for federal programs related to environmental justice.
The administration argued that these programs were wasteful.
"Putting American Farmers First means cutting the millions of dollars that are being wasted on woke DEI propaganda," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement in June, using the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
But Smith, who has participated in several cost-sharing programs through the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, said that regardless of the reason for cuts, farmers struggle when they don't know what grants will be on the chopping block next.
"It's like whiplash — kind of like, you don't really know what's going to stick and what's going to change," Smith said.
Conflicting paths forward
Some farmers hope for more government relief in the coming year, ideally in the form of a new farm bill. The most recent farm bill passed in 2018 and is in place until September 2026. It provides subsidies to farmers, enacts food policy and protects natural resources.
Carl Flaig, who owns a regenerative agriculture farm in Wisconsin, has travelled to Washington, D.C., twice to meet with members of Congress and lobby for a new bill. He wants stronger direct support to farmers and increased funding for food programs.
"We need Washington to get us a very strong, long-term farm bill with a very good nutrition program in it," Flaig said. "I think that's going to help everybody for the future here."
Republican Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee. He told NPR that a new five-year farm bill is a committee priority, but SNAP isn't a focus of discussions.
"We're looking to see if we're going to need additional aid in the future. We're also working very hard on the farm bill," Boozman said. "Farmers are in a very difficult situation. If you're planting something in the ground right now, you're losing money."
But some farm advocates are less bullish that a farm bill will happen in 2026.
"Congress just hasn't been able to look across the aisle and say, 'Hey, we can write a farm bill that supports farmers and doesn't take food away from people who are using nutrition assistance programs,' " Lavender said. "Hope springs eternal that Congress will realize the importance."
For many farmers, regardless of whether a new bill passes, the larger problem of uncertainty in federal agriculture policy remains.
"I think a lot of people are just in a state of numbness, where they don't want to think about if there's going to be another government shutdown, and they don't want to worry about what programs are going to be cut," Minnesota farmer Rudolph said. "There's going to be gaps in the system, so then it's like, what are ways that we can ensure that people are fed in our community?"
Vanessa Garcia Polanco, government relations director at the National Young Farmers Coalition, said many of the farmers she works with are leaning on mutual aid networks and fundraisers, instead of USDA programs, to stay in business.
While distrust of the government among farmers is not new, she said it becomes heightened when they see extreme policy shifts as new administrations come into office.
"Young farmers, especially farmers of color, do not trust USDA, do not trust the government," Garcia Polanco said. "People are really burnt out as advocates, and also as farmers and as people that have had to pivot and handle so much economic stress."
If the relationship between farmers and the government frays too deeply, she said, it could have serious implications.
"A lot of people think that they can do it alone, but we also need the federal government to do it with us," Garcia Polanco said. "That's how we also build food security and national security."
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