Government shutdown exposes food system fragility as small farmers lose ground to agricultural giants

America’s food system faced its biggest crisis since the pandemic in October when the US Department of Agriculture temporarily suspended the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) due to a government shutdown. The suspension left more than 40 million Americans scrambling to put food on their tables, forcing families to ration meals and skip eating entirely—scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression rather than modern America.

Communities rallied to fill the gap, with churches, neighborhood groups, and volunteers stepping up to support struggling single mothers, isolated elderly residents, people with disabilities, and families with young children who couldn’t rely on school meal programs. While SNAP benefits were eventually restored, the Trump administration has since threatened to withdraw funding from Democratic-led states, creating ongoing uncertainty for food-insecure households.

This crisis highlights a deeper structural problem in American agriculture: small farmers, who could potentially strengthen local food systems and improve food security, are increasingly squeezed out by policies that favor large agricultural operations. Big farming operations continue to capture the majority of government agricultural support, while budget cuts have steadily eroded the markets and profit margins that small growers depend on to survive.

The recent events underscore how political decisions and agricultural policies intersect to create vulnerabilities in the food supply chain, leaving millions of Americans dependent on programs that can disappear overnight while consolidating power in the hands of industrial agriculture.