Wired reports that cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture initiated by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could send grocery prices surging upward again — with rural America taking the brunt of the hit.
At issue is the fact that DOGE laid off significant numbers of USDA employees who worked in food inspection.
These workers being out of commission means that imported foods are far more likely to rot while awaiting inspection, and that invasive species of crop-destroying insects could get into the country undetected.
All of this could once again put upward pressure on grocery prices at a time when Americans are still coping with elevated prices for eggs and other grocery staples.
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Armando Rosario-Lebron, a vice president of the National Association of Agriculture Employees, tells Wired that it's "been absolute chaos" trying to keep things running smoothly with the staffing cuts, especially since "these ports were already strained in how they process cargo, and now some of them have been completely decimated."
Even more alarming, writes Wired, is the prospect of "local market wars over resources" in which "bigger cities and larger grocery chains will be better equipped for than mom-and-pops and rural communities."
Mike Lahar, the regulatory affairs manager at customs broker A.N. Deringer, tells Wired that ports are already feeling the absence of the fired inspectors because "there aren't as many inspections being done and it doesn't just put us at risk, it puts our farmers and our food chains at risk."
