Louisiana lawmakers set aside $3 million this past year to help farmers reeling from the loss of federal food-purchase programs, but only a third of that money ended up with the group that organized farmers to lobby for it. The Louisiana Food Policy Council, which rallied more than two dozen growers at the state capitol in May 2025 to push for the funding, wound up with just $1 million after legislative budget writers split the appropriation three ways — sending equal shares to Feeding Louisiana and a Florida-based agriculture education company called Farm-Ed.
The funding fight traces back to the Trump administration's decision in early 2025 to end two Biden-era programs, the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance initiatives, that had given state and tribal governments federal money to buy food directly from local farmers. According to New Orleans CityBusiness, Louisiana stood to lose more than $18 million because of those federal cuts. The Local Food Purchase Assistance program alone had delivered more than $12 million to Louisiana farmers and hunger-relief networks over two years, according to Feeding Louisiana.
Margee Green, executive director of the Louisiana Food Policy Council, organized the May 2025 lobby day at the Louisiana State Capitol that helped push lawmakers toward action. The Louisiana Legislature passed House Resolution 205 that same month, and by June 12, 2025, lawmakers had folded a $3 million appropriation for farmer assistance into House Bill 1, per the CityBusiness report. Green had proposed using the money for grants covering farm equipment and infrastructure, estimating the funds could help outfit as many as 200 farms with average grants around $15,000.
A Three-Way Split Changes the Math
That plan didn't survive contact with the state's Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, which announced in August 2025 that the $3 million appropriation would be divided into thirds. The council's expected windfall shrank to $1 million, with Feeding Louisiana — which had previously administered local food purchase assistance funds under contract with federal and state governments — receiving another $1 million. The final $1 million went to Farm-Ed, a Florida-based agriculture education company that makes AI-driven indoor grow chambers for classroom STEM programs and had planned to expand into seven states, including Louisiana, for the 2025-2026 school year, according to Hypepotamus.
The political ties surrounding that decision drew scrutiny. Farm-Ed contributed $10,000 to the Louisiana Republican Legislative Delegation political action committee on May 2, 2025, per CityBusiness reporting. Federal Election Commission records reviewed separately show Farm-Ed founder and CEO Garyn Angel made a $7,000 contribution through WinRed to Republican U.S. Representative Julia Letlow of Louisiana that same day. Farm-Ed's Baton Rouge lobbyist, Katie Bernhardt, had chaired the Louisiana Democratic Party from 2020 to 2024 before registering to represent the company, according to the Baton Rouge Business Report.
Reimbursement Rules Slow the Council's Spending
Even the reduced $1 million proved hard to access. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, which administered the Farmers First funds, required the Food Policy Council to spend its own money first and then seek reimbursement, requesting documentation including bills of lading for each claim. The department also limited the funds, starting in January 2026, to direct food purchases from farmers rather than equipment, and it required purchases to come from an approved vendor list — rejecting Green's request to use funds for farmers market tokens.
The council received a $50,000 advance under the Farmers First contract on April 7, 2026, and used $24,000 of its own money on top of that to make purchases. It bought about $2,000 of carrots from River Queen Greens and roughly $72,000 of shrimp from Anna Marie Seafood, then donated the food to grassroots nonprofits feeding the community. In total, the council completed about $98,000 in direct purchases before the state agriculture department paused disbursements in 2026 while reviewing documentation, according to the same Business Report account. The council had been required to spend $1 million on food within three months.
A Rematch Between Green and Strain
The administrative friction has a political backstory. Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, a Republican who has led the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry since January 2008, defeated Green in the October 2019 primary for the commissioner's seat, winning with 56.8% of the vote to her 20.3%, per MultiState Elections. Green told CityBusiness she was not ruling out a political motive behind the department's handling of the funds. The Louisiana Food Policy Council said state requirements, reimbursement rules and administrative delays made it difficult to access and spend its funding, and the group's own core work — research, fundraising, advising and grant-making — lagged as a result.
Before taking the statewide role in 2025, Green led the New Orleans-based urban agriculture group SPROUT NOLA and ran her own farm, Fat River Flowers, according to the Southern Foodways Alliance; she has worked in community food systems since 2008. Annie Moore described Green as an important leader in the local food system, per the CityBusiness report. The council has since changed its name in IRS registry filings to the Louisiana Food Policy Action Council.
The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry extended the Farmers First program until May 2027, giving the council more time to work through the reimbursement process. The USDA programs that started this chain of events had provided hundreds of millions of dollars to small farms nationally since 2021 before being terminated, a pattern of federal rollback that has also rattled food-relief networks elsewhere, as Hoodline has reported on Tampa Bay food bank disruptions and Massachusetts funding cuts tied to the same USDA decision.
