As a fourth-generation farmer, tending to a hardworking flock of pasture-raised hens in the southern Arizona border city of Douglas, Gabriel Cruz is used to navigating the unexpected. He worries about hungry coyotes and curious bobcats, water shortages and electrical outages. 

It’s all part of being a farmer.

“Agriculture is up and down, left and right,” he said. “We have to constantly be prepared and ready for anything.”

He just didn’t think interruptions to federal funding would be one of the things he’d encounter. But he has. And it’s impacting his ability to move eggs, which he said is “devastating” for the consumers and communities his farm serves.

“It’s unfortunate because I guarantee the people making the decisions to cut off the funding, I guarantee they eat. I’d bet millions of dollars that they eat,” he said. “We’re in survival mode.”

Tucked along the foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains not far from the U.S.-Mexico border, Cruz Farm practices sustainable, ethical and regenerative methods. Along with pasture-raised eggs, the farm also grows and prepares its own feed, made of barley, oats, fish meal and alfalfa. And it grows pinto beans, coffee beans, pecans and garlic, while also selling honey and fresh tortillas. 

Cruz Farm is deeply ingrained in the community. Many of the relationships Cruz has fostered over the years, with food banks and school districts, are supported with different types of federal funding, distributed primarily through a variety of USDA grants. When the funding is suspended or frozen, it impacts his livelihood and that of anyone who works for him. 

And he believes, despite a decades-old farm-to-table movement, that funding cuts affecting farmers illustrate a misunderstanding of the vital importance of rural, agricultural operations to the food system.

“There’s still a major disconnect,” he said. “At the end of the day, it costs money to get the product to the destination.”

Logistics, or arranging for products to get from the farm to the market, in rural settings can mean several hours on the road. Cruz said federal funding, historically, alleviates some of the uncertainty related to logistical costs. The historical certainty and reliability of federal funding, he said, has long allowed farmers to invest with confidence in personnel and logistics. 

“We make all these bets because we know we have capital coming in, we have sales coming in, our product is sold and it’s allocated,” he said, mentioning that funding interruptions change the landscape. “It’s almost taking away a security that promotes constant food production and placement in our communities.”

Cruz is already looking ahead to early 2026, when a contract for one of the programs his farm supports will end. He said his team is preparing now, shifting and pivoting, to make sure sales continue and new contracts are firmed up.

“Our product is produced daily. We’re just in time. We have to sell that. We can’t store it,” Cruz said of his farm’s fresh eggs. “And especially with the current Avian flu, it becomes a scale of economy and supply and demand. I can’t tell a hen to stop producing because we don’t have contracts.”