April 21, 2025 – Last week, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) met with farmers at Moon Valley Farm in Woodsboro, Maryland, where livestock, vegetable, and grain growers expressed concerns about frozen USDA programs, the impacts of tariffs, and other challenges.
Van Hollen said that he set up the roundtable because farmers have been calling and writing to his office—especially about tariffs and the cancellation of funding for programs that connect small farms to schools and food banks—and his purpose was to hear more of their stories.
“The freeze on payments under the farm-to-school program is outrageous,” he said at the event. “We will fight this in the courts. We will fight this in Congress.”
Senator Chris Van Hollen (left) listens to farmer-brewer Tom Barse of Milkhouse Brewery (right) at Stillpoint Farm talk about “trying to find a way to continue to make a living as a small farm.” (Photo credit: Lisa Held)
It was one of several agricultural roundtables and town halls that lawmakers are holding across the country during Congress’ two-week recess, which ends later this week. Politico reported that Senators Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Adam Schiff (D-California) would all be gathering feedback from farmers over the break.
One farmer told Civil Eats he attended an invite-only event that Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) held in her state, where representatives of both the Minnesota Farm Bureau and Minnesota Farmers’ Union were present. He attended to call her attention to the still-frozen Farm Labor Stabilization Program. In Maine, Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) marched alongside farmers protesting USDA cuts to funding and staff.
