Advocates for food production are looking for alternate funding sources for farmers after the federal government slashed $400 million from the nationwide Regional Food Business Centers program.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the termination of the program last week, saying the Biden-era effort was “not sustainable” for farmers and never should have been established.
“The Biden Administration created multiple, massive programs without any long-term way to finance them. This is not sustainable for farmers who rely on these programs, and it flies in the face of Congressional intent,” Rollins said in the news release.
The USDA said it will honor 450 grants already awarded to farmers and food businesses, but the program’s remaining funds “will be repurposed to better support American agriculture.”
One of the primary objectives of the RFBC program was setting up and distributing “business builder grants” to farmers and food-related organizations to grow their operations.
But the funding had been frozen for months as part of the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to reduce federal spending.
Part of the cut funding included $30 million for islands and remote areas, which included Hawaiʻi. The “islands and remote regions” also included Alaska, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean.
Twelve total regions in the U.S. were awarded for their RFBC programs. The USDA terminated four RFBC programs, including Hawaiʻi’s, because it said they had yet to make grant commitments.
The slow distribution of the funds was one of the biggest concerns with the program, which was funded in 2023. Another concern is that a significant portion of it was for administrative purposes, rather than farmers.
About $5 million of $30 million meant for islands and remote areas was spent when the program was frozen for review.
Additionally, some $5 million was meant specifically for Hawaiʻi — about $3.5 million for the business builder grants and $1.5 million for technical assistance.
Harmonee Williams, program manager for the nonprofit Hawaiʻi Good Food Alliance and project director for the RFBC islands and remote areas, pushed back against those criticisms, saying that project leaders had been working since 2023 — on what was a new program — to establish the grants and make them accessible to farmers.
Ultimately, she said the termination of the program is a loss for farmers.
“There were 12 of us nationwide to really design a program that worked for our specific region,” Williams said. “ We spent some extra time trying to make it accessible for farmers that often are left out of these reimbursable grants, and also grants that are just really technical to write. We also had money written in for grant writing support, along with language assistance if English was not people's first language.”
Williams said the business builder grants were ready to be distributed to farmers earlier this year — but that’s when the funds were frozen.
“We were really excited to support farmers that often are not able to access federal grants. So, it was just super disappointing to do all that work … to hear this all being under the guise of government efficiency. This is the exact opposite of that," she said.
Williams called the RFBC grants “innovative” and said they would have helped finance parts of local agriculture that the federal government usually doesn’t fund, such as equipment.
While the federal government has ended the program, the foundation and relationships for the grants have already been set up, so there’s an effort to keep the program alive but funded by a different source.
Williams said those interested in supporting the grants can find more information at Hawaiʻi Good Food Alliance’s website.
