Republican Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA Bill Increases Costs for Farmers and Rural Communities, Jeopardizes Food for Hungry People at Home and Abroad

Jun 06, 2025

House Appropriations Committee Republicans released the draft fiscal year 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies funding bill, which will be considered in subcommittee tomorrow. This bill increases costs for rural communities and cuts funding for programs that support farmers and help hardworking people feed their families.

For 2026, the bill provides $25.5 billion in discretionary funding, $1.2 billion, or 4.4 percent, below 2025. The legislation:

Increases costs for farmers and rural communities bycutting critical investments including direct loans to help hardworking Americans buy homes in rural areas, water and waste grants to help the poorest communities get safer water services, and energy savings programs that support farmers and rural small businesses. Republicans are also cutting funding that helps low- and very low-income rural homeowners repair their homes.
Hurts farmers by cutting the support system that helps them access government resources they are promised.
Threatens access to food for hardworking and vulnerable Americans by not providing the full fruit and vegetable benefit to USDA's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) recipients.
Slashes Food for Peace to the lowest level since 2002 while the administration continues to illegally withhold international food assistance, taking food from the mouths of children and hungry people around the world.

Source : house.gov

Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.