When is a story about farmers NOT about farmers? When the farmers are but a narrative device with which the media can stealthily advocate for a preferred policy in peril. In this case, farmers used as human shields so NBC can advocate for the Green New Deal (under its actual name, the Inflation Reduction Act).
Watch the report in its entirety, as aired on NBC Nightly News on Wednesday, February 19th, 2025 (Click “expand” to view transcript):
LESTER HOLT: With the president's freeze on certain federal funding, some farmers aren't getting critical government grants that they were counting on. They tell Emily Ikeda they’re struggling to pay their bills.
KEVIN LEAVITT: There’s about 100 of them out there.
EMILIE IKEDA: Kevin Leavitt hoped these solar panels would help his Maine farm flourish.
LEAVITT: The hope here is these panels will produce enough electricity that the farm needs all year long.
IKEDA: He was only able to move forward with the pricey project because of a federal program that promised to shoulder roughly a third of the cost after completion. But the panels have been up and running for weeks, and no sign of the $45,000 he’s been counting on from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Could you have ever imagined finding yourself in this position after taking on that agreement?
LEAVITT: No. But everything is in writing. Everything signed. You’re stressed out. You’re on edge. It has a toll on you.
IKEDA: President Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders pausing federal funding for review, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate initiative passed during the Biden administration. That has grant money built in for farmers like Leavitt to conserve soil, water, and energy.
FARMER: I can’t get any answers….
IKEDA: Coast to coast, farmers who overwhelmingly supported Trump in November are voicing confusion and concern.
FARMER: I’ve already done a bunch of the work. Already paid for the material. Already paid for the labor, so I’m out all that cost…
USDA SPOKESPERSON: It's going to reach into every state and every community nationwide. That's how far the reach of the Department of Agriculture is.
IKEDA: A USDA spokesperson says Secretary Rollins is aware farmers have been waiting on payments during this government review, and is working to make determinations as quickly as possible, citing plans to share information later this week. Until then:
What do you want people in Washington to know?
LEAVITT: Enforce the contract that they gave to us- that they gave to everybody else. And do what it says.
IKEDA: Or else what?
LEAVITT: Or else there might not be farms.
IKEDA: Emilie Ikeda, NBC News. West Gardiner, Maine.
This whole story is a sneaky way of trying to elicit support for an Inflation Reduction Act that did nothing to reduce inflation, but did effectively add to our national deficit. Sprinkled throughout the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act were the components of the Green New Deal, the landmark “climate” legislation championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DSA-NY).
The deception lies in framing the story as being about farmers in distress due to not receiving their promised government subsidies. One immediately thinks that the subsidies in question are perhaps tariff offsets or some other USDA incentive -- until the one farmer points to the solar panels.
At that point, it becomes crystal clear that the protagonist of the story is not the farmers but the Green New Deal subsidies placed on hold due to villainous spending freezes and DOGE cuts. There is little actual concern for our great farming communities beyond their usefulness in service of the climate agenda, and in undermining the current administration.
This story is little more than climate propaganda of the worst kind, crafted at the expense of our farmers.
