A Texas farm grant worth $7.5 million was canceled in a letter dated March 23, 2026, ending Diana Padilla’s plans to expand her farming education nonprofit across Texas. USDA terminated the grant as part of the administration’s broader effort to eliminate DEI programs. It cited the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program as wasteful spending. Padilla leads HOPE for Small Farm Sustainability, based in Harlingen in the Rio Grande Valley. She says her program is open to anyone interested in learning to farm. She denies it was focused on diversity, equity or inclusion.
HOPE had received the grant in the summer of 2023. At the time of cancellation, the nonprofit had spent less than 10% of the total — roughly $700,000. Most of that went toward equipment and education. The majority of the grant, 59%, was budgeted to purchase land. None of those transactions had been completed. Padilla had identified four properties in Central Texas near Houston, San Antonio, and Austin that were ready to purchase for community farming use. Those plans are now on hold.
Texas farm grant canceled despite open enrollment and documented spending
The most concrete program activity at the time of cancellation was in Kaufman County, near Dallas. Jamie Cumming had been hired as an educator in October 2024. She ran workshops a few times a month, open to anyone. About 27 people had been assigned plots of land that Kaufman County made available for the program. Participants ranged from young families to a 78-year-old woman who wanted to return to farming. Cumming estimated about four Black or Hispanic participants among the 27. The rest came with full-time jobs and wanted to learn farming during their free time. The workshops covered irrigation, plant identification, seasonal planting, and soil preparation. When the grant ended, so did Cumming’s job and all programming in the county.
USDA told the Texas Tribune that the program permitted the abuse of federal funds. It cited expenditures at other ILCMA recipients including a barbecue smoker, a gazebo, massages, and a $20,000 budget for ink pens at one organization. USDA did not respond to specific questions about HOPE. Padilla says the money spent by her organization was used correctly. She has 30 days to appeal the termination. For the broader national picture of the ILCMA cancellation, Agroinformacion covered the full scope of the $300 million ILCMA cancellation across all 50 recipient organizations.
Texas farmland loss adds urgency to the Texas farm grant canceled debate
The cancellation arrives as Texas is losing working land at an alarming rate. Between 1997 and 2022, the state lost more than 3.7 million acres of privately-owned farms and ranches. Of those, 1.8 million acres were lost in just the final five years of that period. The Rio Grande Valley, where Padilla is based, lost 751,000 acres of farmland in that same 25 years. Small family farms now represent 86% of all U.S. farms, down from 89% in 2021. That share is still shrinking.
Judith McGeary, executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, called the situation a national security threat. She said when a country cannot grow its own food, it becomes dependent on imports far more than most people realize. P. Wade Ross, director of the Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization, said government decision-makers often don’t understand the farming landscape. They cut programs that are actually working toward their own stated goals, he said — without realizing the damage. The original reporting was published by the Texas Tribune on April 16, 2026.