As the Trump administration continues to slash and burn parts of the federal government in its avowed mission to weed out “waste, fraud and abuse,” embers continue to land on the North Coast, scorching services.
In recent weeks, news arrived that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture will hamper nutrition assistance programs supporting seniors, low-income families and tribal members, while dealing a financial blow to local farmers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, meanwhile, is reportedly preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers nationwide — on top of the 2,000 employees already let go since Trump took office — and shutter two of its Humboldt offices. And the U.S. Department of Education announced that Cal Poly Humboldt is one of dozens of universities it is investigating for alleged discrimination, threatening that the university may lose federal funding if it is found to have engaged in “discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin.”
Here’s a rundown of the week’s developments and what’s known of their local impacts.
USDA Funds
Food for People, the North Coast Growers Association, local schools and tribes, as well as the farmers, low-income families, children and elders they serve, are reeling this week from news that a pair of universally lauded programs’ funding has been cut.
The USDA announced March 10 that it was cutting a pair of programs — the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement (LFS) — that provided a combined $1 billion in funding nationally to support school nutrition programs and help food banks purchase food from local farms.
Both of those programs were reportedly thriving in Humboldt County, having already brought in more than $1 million in funding that has largely gone to local farms to provide locally grown produce to schools, tribal nutrition programs and food banks.
Carly Robbins, executive director of Food for People, says the LFPA allowed the nonprofit organization to spend $360,000 annually with local farms through the North Coast Growers Association to provide fresh, locally grown produce to the food bank’s approximately 21,000 clients, providing about 9,500 pounds of food a month.
Megan Kenney, who directs the North Coast Growers Association’s Harvest Hub, which acts as a conduit between local farms and Food for People, schools and other large-scale purchasers, says it’s hard to overstate the economic impact of these funds.
“That’s money our farmers are injecting into the local community,” she says, noting the USDA funds came from outside of the area, went to local farms and their employees, who then spend them at other local businesses. “There’s this huge economic multiplier effect. … This really could have been a huge economic development opportunity for the region.”
But the lost funding means local farms and the economy will not see that influx of cash, and Food for People will offer clients a lower quantity and variety of produce, and what clients receive is more likely to be from out of the area, adding to climate impacts and supply chain vulnerability.
Kenney says she’d recently helped local farmers coordinate crop plans for the coming year to ensure a continued, varied harvest to meet Food for People and other programs’ needs. Without the USDA funding, some of those entities likely won’t be able to purchase what they’d planned to, meaning some farms may struggle to find a market for their products.
The Blue Lake Rancheria recently announced its LFPA-funded food program, which served 150 households monthly, will be discontinued in September due to the lost federal funding.
“This loss of funding significantly impacts our ability to provide local, nutritious food to our tribal elders — who have always been our priority — as well as to other families and individuals in our community who lack access to fresh, locally produced food,” wrote Tribal Chair Jason Ramos in a social media post.
Kenney says it’s been frustratingly difficult to get clear answers regarding the cut programs and what might come next.
“I think all of us are just grasping at straws,” she says. “USDA is being very cheeky in the way they share things because there’s certain things they can say and certain things they can’t, so you kind of just have to come up with your own interpretation of what things mean.”
Based on media reports, it does not appear anyone from the Trump administration has explained whether these USDA programs were determined to be waste, fraud or abuse.
Robbins and Kenney urged anyone concerned about the cuts’ impacts locally and who is able to consider donating to Food for People’s Locally Delicious Farm Fund, which is used to purchase food solely from local producers, and can be found at foodforpeople.org.
“With this large funding source going away, any funds toward that would be tremendous,” Robbins says.
NOAA Reductions
North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman, who serves as the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, joined colleagues this week in raising alarm about the “far-reaching impacts” of the administration’s plans to close nearly three dozen leases for NOAA offices, including those in Eureka and Arcata.
“NOAA provides critical information about extreme weather and coastal hazards, manages fisheries, conserves coastal and marine resources, and protects American fishermen and consumers,” the letter states. “Closing field facilities will compromise NOAA’s ability to provide these services and damage the local communities and economies that rely on them.”
NOAA’s Eureka office is part of the agency’s Fishery Resources Analysis and Monitoring Division, while the Arcata office is part of the agency’s Habitat Restoration Division. It’s unclear if layoffs will accompany the office closures.
Speaking to ABC News, Huffman said news that NOAA is preparing to lay off an additional 1,000 employees to meet Trump’s reductions in force mandate is devastating to an agency that is “already significantly understaffed,” calling the situation “beyond a shitshow.”
“This is not about efficiency and it’s certainly not about waste, fraud and abuse,” Huffman said.
Cal Poly Humboldt
The U.S. Department of Education announced March 14 that it has launched civil rights investigations at 45 universities across the nation, including Cal Poly Humboldt.
According to a press release, the investigations’ focus is an allegation that the schools had violated the Civil Rights Act by partnering with the PhD Project, an organization that works with universities to provide doctoral students with support and networking opportunities, but — according to the press release — limits eligibility based on the race of participants. As such, the press release notes, CPH is under investigation for “race exclusionary practices,” though there’s no allegation the university uses race as a criteria for entry into any of its programs.
The press release links to a “Dear Colleague Letter” the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights sent to the universities, including Humboldt, and its allegations of discrimination go well beyond graduate programs.
“In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families,” the letter states. “These institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia. For example, colleges, universities and K-12 schools have routinely used race as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training and other institutional programming. In a shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history, many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies and in dormitories and other facilities.”
The letter goes on to allege universities have “toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism,'” but makes no mention of the fact that race-based chattel slavery was legal in the United States from the country’s inception through its first 90 years, helping make it a global economic power.
In response to the announcement that CPH (and Cal State University at San Bernardino) were being federally investigated, the California State University system issued a brief statement pledging to cooperate.
“The CSU continues to comply with longstanding applicable federal and state laws and CSU policies and does not discriminate or provide preferences on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin,” the statement says. “CSU remains committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable learning environment that is open to all. CSU respects the diverse opinions and viewpoints of our students, staff and faculty.”
Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, extension 321.
This article appears in Youngest North Coast Condor Dies of Lead Poisoning.
