Thank you for publishing Steven Allen Adams’ story on July 9th about the West Virginia Democrats and their legislative priorities. Unlike most of the Republicans in office — who seem to think the priorities of West Virginians lie in petty things like being able to legally stand up while riding a motorcycle– the Democrats are focused on what’s important. They are saying that the Legislature needs to work, in a bipartisan way, on the most important things for all West Virginians, such as clean drinking water, a fully-funded Flood Resiliency Trust Fund to help communities protect against flooding, fully supported public education, and fixing PEIA. West Virginians need food, water, affordable shelter and healthcare; and the West Virginia economy, including its agricultural sector, needs to actually be supported and, if need be, fought for, in order to create more jobs for citizens of the state. Those should be our priorities, and that’s what the Democrats are saying.

Earlier this year, programs that were helping alleviate hunger in the state AND providing a source of income for West Virginia farmers — programs like the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, or LFPA — were cut by the Trump Administration. These programs were abruptly cancelled at the mid-contract point, leaving both farmers and food banks across the nation hanging. In West Virginia, as across the nation, these cuts meant that cash and sweat equity investments farmers had made, in order to produce healthy food and sell it to local food banks, schools and daycares, were all for naught. Farmers and food banks were not reimbursed by the USDA as had been contracted. The sum total of this unlawful contract breaking here in this state? West Virginia’s farmers had to scramble to try and find new places to sell what they had already contracted to sell to the food bank, and West Virginia’s food banks had to scramble to figure out how to fill the huge gap that the USDA had just put in their budget.

The purpose of programs like LFPA is simple: to rebuild local food systems, so that supply chains are shorter and local farmers are more economically secure and able to continue feeding their neighbors. West Virginia’s food system is tremendously fragile, and needs its champions in order to be rebuilt in a sustainable way.

To the north of us, Pennsylvania’s governor and lead agricultural official tried to appeal these unlawful cuts made by the USDA to the LFPA program. When that didn’t work, they launched a lawsuit. Pennsylvania’s leadership is actually fighting for their farmers, as the Democrats here in our state are fighting for all West Virginians. But where is our governor, and our other Republican leaders? The Republicans in this state are apparently too busy being Trump’s toadies to focus on what’s really important. I guess they see supporting tax cuts for billionaires, while taking funding away from hard-working farmers and food away from the hungry, as their moral duty. Well, I say it’s immoral what they’re doing.

Deborah Stiles

Saint George