Amid Federal Government Shakeup, Kaine Hears Concerns from Loudoun Farmers
Members of Loudoun’s agricultural community today shared their concerns with Sen. Tim Kaine about the challenges they face amid the chaotic transformation underway within the federal government during the first weeks of the second Trump administration.
During the roundtable meeting at Hillsboro’s Old Stone School, the panel said spending freezes have impacted grant funding for important projects, tariffs threaten to drive up costs and reduce their markets, and immigration policies limit access to critical labor.
Kaine said legislators in Washington, DC, often don’t hear the stories about how policy changes impact businesses and families.
Scott and Becky Harris, of the pioneering sprits company Catoctin Creek Distillery in Purcellville, told Kaine the retaliatory tariffs installed by the EU during the first Trump administration killed their expansion into Europe. Now, their distributors in Canda and Mexico are hesitant to plan imports because of the threat of new tariffs.
Sara Brown said plans to establish a demonstration agroforestry project on her family’s Lincoln beef farm are now uncertain because an approved federal grant—one of only two awarded in Virginia—may be withheld.
Avis Renshaw, of Mom’s Apple Pies, said she expects the cost of her pie tins to increase if tariffs are imposed on Canada, as they did during the previous round of trade wars.
And, several said, the move to put federal employees and contractors out of work is likely to reduce the customer base for their products.
“Farming and forestry is key,” Kaine said. “It’s the biggest part of the Virginia economy. People think about Virginia and they think high tech. They think ship building. That’s really important, but ag and forestry is still number one.”
“The uncertainty is very difficult. Around the table, you have folks whose business is dependent on a healthy economy,” Kaine said. “A lot of people around the table have applied for grants. Those dollars aren’t flowing and there’s an uncertainty effect. And here we are a few weeks away from spring starting, which is a really important time for farmers to start planning and undertaking projects, and they're not sure where they’ll be.”
Kaine said he expects grants and other funding previously approved by Congress to move forward as the courts review challenges to administrative actions.
“I think the key, the first key, would be getting funding turned back on grants that people were appropriated by Congress. In my view, it's unlawful to stop a grant or stop a program if Congress has passed an appropriation,” he said.
He said the next hurdle will be the March 14 deadline to agree on a budget. “We've got to make sure in that budget that the kinds of programs that farm and forestry industry sector rely on, that they are available. I take that back very strongly as we work on the budget.”
Harris said the European tariffs applied to American whisky during the first Trump administration still impact his business.
“A year before first the Trump administration, we were building a nice business in Europe. We were using various state monies that are available for promoting exports and new trade missions and things like that,” he said.
They invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in preparing the required labels, traveling to trade shows and building a distribution network. The year before the Trump administration started, 11% of the company’s revenue was coming from Europe. And, he said, that was important because of the increasingly saturated domestic craft spirits market.
Then the U.S. applied a tariff on European aluminum imports. “The Europeans retaliated with whiskey 25% tariff and our products went from being 50 euros to 75 euros. It's more than 25%, right?” he said.
In addition to the product becoming unaffordable to European consumers, there became a negative perception of American products generally, he said. “So, it killed our business to zero, and it's stayed at zero in Europe.”
Renshaw said during the last round of tariffs on Canadian aluminum, the cost of pie tins went from $72 a case to $173—a far higher increase than the 10% tariff. “What we experienced is that the price never does come back down once it goes up,” she said.
While tins are a relatively minor cost overall in her family bakery operation, butter is a major one, she said. She is concerned about the spread of disease that are impacting the nation’s eggs and dairy industries at a time when programs like those at the National Institutes for Health are being shut down or de-staffed.
Brown is working with the Savanna Institute to create a silvopasture, a farming practice that combines trees, grazing animals, and forage on the same land.
Eliza Greenman, of the Savanna Institute, said the integration of livestock and trees in a pasture, not only provides shade and comfort, but also provides feed with chestnuts, persimmons and mulberries—once common on American farms. “We are bringing that back. This grant was to become a demo farm, but also provide breeding for the improvement of these crops so that others can copy and use better genetics and be more successful,” she said.
After another grant awardee was told the funding wasn’t available, Brown said she isn’t sure whether to move forward with the $60,000 investment to get the project started.
Tia Erman, of the Piedmont Environmental Council, said uncertainty about grants may delay plans to expand production at the organization’s community garden and to offer new educational programs.
Stephen Bradford, a third-generation farmer at Potomac Vegetable Farms, said the current climate may be a setback for efforts to implement more sustainable farming methods.
“We're seeing the chaos that's being caused in this specific moment with the funding increases and with uncertainty about which programs farmers can continue to rely on,” he said. “There was a lot of movement in supporting farmers to develop more regenerative practices and now that's up in the air.”
However, Bradford also hopes for something positive to come from the priorities laid out by President Trump and newly approved Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“I do think there is a silver lining if a bipartisan effort were to be put forward serious, significant change that could be created,” he said, suggesting a shift away from exporting agricultural products and instead keeping produce in local communities.
“If Donald Trump is serious about America first, if Robert Kennedy is serious about making America healthy, there is an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and invest seriously in the types of programs and infrastructure that will allow for American soil to be feeding American people, which I think would not be a bad thing if we were able to create a more robust local and regional food economy,” he said.
Failings of the national immigration policy also present challenges to the farmers.
Scott Harris said the legally documented immigrants who work at his distillery are concerned.
“We have employees that work for us who are legally documented immigrants, not citizens, immigrants from a blended family of citizens and immigrants. Even the legal ones are worried that they could just get swept up. … These are really, really, really big concerns. They hit us right at home,” he said.
Others said it should be easier to allow agricultural workers into the country and it easier for seasonal workers to return each year and longer stays.
Kaine said that with a limitation on the number of worker visas, many seek entry under the asylum policies that can take years to adjudicate.
“There are those who are fleeing domestic violence. There are those who are fleeing drug violence in their neighborhood. But 80% are people who are looking for economic opportunity,” Kaine said. “But we don't make it easier for somebody to immigrate for a job, and so we make it very hard. There are these visa categories, but they're capped, and as the population grows and grows and grows, the cap doesn't change and so it's harder and harder to qualify for one of the work visas.”