Look, farming is tough enough without the government making it harder. There’s a program that’s been around since 1996 that is helping farmers and landowners protect their soil and water while keeping their farms productive. It’s been a lifeline for small and mid-sized farmers who don’t have deep pockets. It’s called the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) run through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Well now, Washington is cutting funds and staff from many programs, including a freeze on all USDA programs, and it’s creating real problems for rural families here and across the country.

For example, farmsteads at risk, and whose owners need help, are stuck waiting even longer, sometimes years, to get the funding and technical support needed to keep their land healthy and productive.

Even worse, some farmers already have contracts for assistance and are working in good faith, but now those payments are being put on hold. That’s money they were counting on, and now they’re left in the lurch.

Without this program, we’ll see more soil washing away, more polluted water, and more long-term damage to the land. This affects all of us, and it’s small farmers, who don’t have corporate money to fall back on, that are especially hit the hardest.

Farming is the backbone of this country, and cutting EQIP funding is an attack on rural America. It hurts farmers, our land, and our local economies. We need to tell Washington to stop turning its back on the people who feed this country.

If you agree, call or write your representatives and let them know. Farmers shouldn’t have to fight for the support they were promised.

Note, on Feb. 20, USDA Secretary Rollins released funds for contracts already in place. Funding for future projects and other programs is still on hold.

DOUG BROWN,

Atlanta