AP Photo
PHILADELPHIA — The state has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture, accusing the federal agency of illegally terminating an agreement. The suit says the feds violated Pennsylvania’s $13 million Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program agreement.
The governor’s office announced the legal challenge at the Share Food Program in Philadelphia, joined by Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, “When a program like LFPA is terminated without warning, without conversation, it send a chilling message that their communities depending on them are invisible and our word to our farmers doesn’t matter. But local foods and local jobs and local farmers matter and all of those local communities matter.”
Several PA farmers and other officials were there. The program supported 189 farms and supplied fresh food to 14 food banks. The suit says the USDA’s decision threatens over 4 million meals and vital income for local farmers.
