Write a new simple attractive title based on the title from Opinion: A farming program is victim to Trump’s disdain for DEI and dont use quote marks

Poison the land, poison the crop. Make toxic the letters “DEI,” destroy the opportunity for new farmers and more food.

That is what the Trump administration has done with an innovative program created in the Rio Grande Valley that was an attempt to stop Texas’ continuing loss of working farmland.

The name of this nonprofit program, started by Diana and Saul Padilla of Harlingen, is HOPE for Small Farm Sustainability, which, as the Texas Tribune reported, had received a $7.5 million grant to educate Texans interested in farming. The grant also allowed the Padillas to purchase land to harvest and to hire educators in regions outside the Valley. The program was open to anyone interested.

But HOPE was trumped by cynicism.

In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent the Padillas a letter terminating the grant as part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — programs.

The letter said the grant’s cancellation came after a review of the Biden administration’s Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program. The USDA claimed the program was “rife with DEI preferences” and wasteful spending.

Let’s look at the nefarious origins of HOPE.

More than a decade ago, after seeing that people couldn’t afford organic produce at farmers markets, Diana Padilla had the idea to help people grow their own food. She and Saul Padilla created a community garden on their farm and spent four hours on Sundays teaching people how to plant.

The $7.5 million grant they were awarded in the summer of 2023 was to allow them to hire educators and take their program statewide, which would, in turn, reward Texas with more farmers, more farms and more healthy food.

Their first hire was in Kaufman County near Dallas, and three more people were to be hired in Central Texas until the grant was terminated.

Where is the triple-headed monster of DEI lurking in this program? Is it hiding among the spinach, cauliflower and cabbage, ready to destroy all things good in American life?

Where is the DEI in HOPE that concerned the Trump administration?

The one educator hired in Kaufman County didn’t collect demographic data from the people attending her workshops. Of the 27 people assigned a plot of land the county allowed them to use, about four were Black or Hispanic. 

Was that too many Black and Hispanic people for the administration?

As for wasteful spending, while the USDA criticized the Biden program, which awarded HOPE the grant, it didn’t offer any specific criticism of HOPE. The nonprofit had spent less than 10% of the $7.5 million, and most of that was for equipment and education for farmers.

Close to 60% of the grant money was budgeted to buy additional land.

Four properties in Central Texas that HOPE was close to purchasing were near San Antonio, Austin and Houston, and would have been used for community farming. Those opportunities are now gone.

With HOPE for Small Farm Sustainability, the Padillas were trying to reverse the decline of small family farms while also making healthy fruits and vegetables more accessible to all people.

Their quest was noble, hurting no one. It would have helped and fed many, inspiring a new generation of farmers.

But the Trump administration’s vision of diversity, equity, and inclusion is so skewed that they can’t spell farm without the letters D, E and I.