It may be too soon to tell, but Yolo County farmers — like farmers across California — may be hurt financially now that President Donald Trump has curtailed the USAID program.

According to the best information I can find from state finance officials, after the Trump administration abruptly closed the U.S. Agency for International Development, purchases and shipments of U.S. food aid worth over $340 million have been paused.

Whether Yolo farmers will be hurt is still an iffy question. In 2023, according to the Yolo County Crop Report, the gross value of agricultural production was $901.8 million with thousands of people relying on farming to make a living.

The Crop Report states the increase of $205.8 million (or 23%) over 2022 was primarily due to an increase in rice production as “well as improved wine grape and almond yield.”

USAID is a primary supplier of global humanitarian food aid, buying about $2 billion a year of rice, wheat, lentils, and peas, according to federal officials. Total USAID spending is around $38 billion.

For Yolo County, the top five export countries include China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Netherlands, with the top exported commodities being Almonds ($120.9 million), hayseed (an estimated $25.7 million), walnuts ($19.1 million) and rice ($54.2 million).

This is why trying to figure out whether canceling USAID will hurt Yolo Farmers because those crops — with the exception of rice — haven’t been as widely exported as part of USAID. However, we shouldn’t forget that tariffs, which Trump has also imposed, will result in increased costs for farmers locally and across the nation.

According to a recent story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “U.S. farmers and agribusinesses, including Minnesota ventures from ag giants to processors of yellow split peas, could lose money” as a result of closing USAID.

“Minnesota-based agribusiness companies Cargill and CHS Inc., along with Minneapolis trader Sinamco, sold a total of $70 million in sorghum, wheat and peas to the agency’s Food for Peace program, according to records shared with the Minnesota Star Tribune.”

“The Food for Peace program, once a bastion of Cold War-era soft power, was historically a source of income and markets for heartland farmers, with the federal government purchasing surplus crops. And it’s historically had a Midwestern imprint,” according to the Star-Tribune.

The Food for Peace program, which I am somewhat familiar with, was implemented by President John F. Kenney, and first administered by George McGovern, a South Dakota congressman who would return to his home state to run for the U.S. Senate.

The Star-Tribune picks up its story by reporting on a Capitol Hill hearing where Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota “pressed farmers about what the loss of the Food for Peace program might disadvantage U.S. farm country and rural economies.

“Unfortunately, we have seen a temporary pause on programs … that is stopping more than 200,000 metric tons of wheat, valued at $65 million from being purchased from this country,” said Keeff Felty, an Oklahoma wheat farmer and president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, according to the Star-Tribune.

Thus, the consequences to farmers — typically a conservative group — who supported Trump for president may now be hurt financially by his actions. Whether any local farmers lose money, however, has yet to be seen.

And this doesn’t include the effects of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies which may be causing field workers to leave the state or face deportation. We’ll have to see about that as well.

Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.