President Donald Trump’s decision to shutter a long-running worldwide wheat aid program has left farmers in Kansas reeling, The New York Times reported on Monday.
It’s one of a number of programs that faced the chopping block when tech billionaire Elon Musk established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force to root out what he believed to be waste and fraud in the government — which in practice meant mass layoffs of federal workers and the termination of a number of small, lesser-known programs that serve a vital purpose for some people.
The program in question is Food for Peace, which delivers surplus wheat worldwide.
“Conceived by a Kansas farmer and created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Food for Peace has sent burlap sacks of grain stamped ‘From the American People’ to more than four billion people in 150 countries around the world,” wrote Elizabeth Williamson. “Now it is effectively dead.”
These cuts, which Kansas Republicans frantically tried to discourage Trump from making, is bad news not just for the recipients of this wheat in developing nations, said the report, but the Kansas farmers who relied on it to sell large amounts of their harvest.
“It was the latest blow to farmers, particularly in Kansas, where about 80 percent of those on the high plains voted for Mr. Trump and agriculture makes up almost half of the state’s economy. The president’s whipsawing tariffs and cuts to agriculture grants and global food aid have left the state with swollen silos, shrinking markets and volatile prices for crops,” said the report. “Last year Kansas sold half its annual wheat crop abroad, but those buyers have mostly dried up.”
One grain broker that previously used programs like Food for Peace is now attempting to repurpose the unused crops for dog food companies.
Paul Penner, a Kansas farmer, told The Times he is losing patience with Kansas’ GOP representatives for not doing more to tell the public about the damage to his state’s economy from the Trump administration: “We need people who are willing to speak up. I think privately they say things, but publicly, no. And I’m not sure what their pain threshold is.”
Musk and Trump had a dramatic and public falling out in recent weeks, as the billionaire turned on Trump’s tax cut megabill, signed into law at the end of last week. In response, Musk has announced the founding of a new political party to compete with the GOP.