The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has canceled a large part of a $300 million program that was meant to help farmers from underserved communities hold on to their land. The program, called the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program (LCMAP), was created under the Biden administration in 2023 and had already given funding to around 50 projects.
According to The Independent, the program was cut because of “discriminatory preferences based on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and “wasteful spending,” according to a cancellation letter sent to one of the participants. A USDA spokesperson said, “Over the last year, USDA has worked to clean up the mess left for us by the last Administration.” They added, “A peek behind the curtain of this Biden-era program revealed the egregious misuse of taxpayer dollars to the tune of nearly $300 million dollars.”
