How USAID cuts hurt American farmers

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

The ties between U.S. foreign aid and American agriculture run deep — or at least used to. The U.S. International Agency for Development, or USAID, is the largest provider of humanitarian food aid in the world. Much of that aid comes from U.S. farmers, whose corn, wheat and rice is sold in bulk to the government for USAID's programs. What happens now if those programs end?

Link to Jordan Schermerhorn's research of USAID ties by state.

Related episodes:
The gutting of USAID (Apple / Spotify)
A 'Fork in the Road' for federal employees (Apple / Spotify)
Trump threatens the grim trigger (Apple / Spotify)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:11.7	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
0:13.8	I'm Whalen Wong.
0:14.9	And I'm Erica Barris from Planet Money.
0:17.4	Jordan Skimmerhorn was one of the many federal contractors who was thrown out of work last week.
0:22.6	Her job was with USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes foreign aid.
0:28.8	As we covered last week, the Trump administration has halted foreign aid, and it's gutting the agency,
0:34.7	which had 10,000 employees plus contractors like Jordan. I think it was a real
0:39.5	choice to lay off 10,000 mission-driven workaholics. Jordan fortified with her newfound spare
0:46.4	time and a pile of Girl Scout cookies embarked on a research project. She decided to look into
0:52.3	how USAID money supports American agriculture.
0:56.2	I haven't even applied for unemployment yet. I've just been spending 24-7 trying to help
1:01.9	build the evidence base for why USAID matters to the American people and why people throughout
1:06.7	the country should care about it. Jordan compiled data for all 50 states, plus a handful of U.S. territories.
1:12.5	She looked into how the government buys huge amounts of crops to send overseas,
1:17.2	plus how it funds agricultural research at state universities.
1:21.1	Today on the show, we look at how foreign aid benefits American farmers,
1:24.8	and what might happen to these programs under a dramatically
1:28.0	reduced USAID.
1:33.1	This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things in other currencies.
1:37.9	Sending or spending money abroad, hidden fees may be taking a cut.
1:42.0	With Wise, you can convert between up to 40 currencies at the mid-market exchange rate.
	...

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