News from rural America.

Rural Americans brace for disproportionate impact of federal funding cuts to mental health, substance use programs, and new federal policies have farmers from Ohio to Minnesota struggling to grow healthier foods and create sustainable food production programs.

TRANSCRIPT

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

Federal funding cuts plan for mental health and substance use programs will hit rural America especially hard.

Anya Suppian explains.

President Donald Trump vowed to fix US mental health, but his budget for health and human services cuts a billion dollars from behavioral health and addiction grants.

Don Hannaford with Rural Minds says that's vitally important in small communities, where the rate of suicide and opioid overdose is much higher than urban communities.

We're not being extremist when we say that there is a mental health crisis in rural America.

Only 14 percent of behavioral health clinics are rural, and about half treat substance abuse.

At Idaho's Simply Hope Family Outreach, Nancy Windmill relies on the grants to treat teens and adults.

Why are they cutting it now?

I mean, it's not over.

We still have a drug problem.

We still have opioids and fentanyl use that is out there that people are dying from hourly.

Everybody's kind of wondering why this pocket of funding.

I'm Anya Thapian.

Some Ohio farmers say the federal government should do more to help them grow healthier foods.

Many want to, and Joe Maxwell with the Farm Action Fund has ideas about making it happen.

They could shift government food procurement towards healthier foods, using government dollars purchasing power to shift the agriculture and food system.

Food and agriculture add more than a hundred billion dollars to Ohio's economy every year.

But the National Make America Healthy Again Commission calls poor diet a leading cause of chronic disease among kids.

Farm Action wants the Trump administration to confront the current system, which it says routinely prioritizes profits of foreign owned conglomerates over American farmers and families.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture reports there are more than 76,000 farms in the state, and around 90 percent of them are family-owned.

A Minnesota farm group is so alarmed by the clawback of USDA funding, it's joined a lawsuit against the federal government.

The canceled grants were the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, aimed to create fair and sustainable food production programs.

The USDA said the grants were canceled for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Institute's Erin McKee points out funding was terminated just short of the finish line.

We feel like this is rolling back a lot of progress towards a fairer food system.

McKee was surprised by the grant termination.

She says their work isn't really about DEI as much as it's about things that directly align with administration priorities.

Maximizing and promoting American agriculture, ensuring a safe, nutritious and secure food supply and enhancing rural prosperity.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.