DOGE is planning on closing the FSA office in Bakersfield and not renewing the lease. Without the office, local farmers will have to travel to other counties for the services they use for their crops.
- California is known to be one of the largest producing agricultural states in the county.
- Around 3000 residents in Kern County are farmers, over half of those residents use the FSA for their funds and program they offer for the farmers.
- If the FSA building in Bakersfield is closed, farmers will be forced to travel to Lancaster or Visalia for those services.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
California is one of the largest agricultural producing states in the country. Recently, DOGE announced that they are discontinuing the lease of the FSA building in Kern County. I’m Eric J. Dockery, your Bakersfield neighborhood reporter. This closure will affect over 3000 residents who produce quality ingredients for every industry nationwide.
According to the United States Trade Representative, in 2023 California produced and exported $24 billion in domestic agricultural products. And according to Valley Ag Voice Kern County alone produced close to 9 billion in domestic agriculture exports. Kern farmers produced 37% of the produce in the U-S in 2023. Half of the farmers in the county use the Farm Service Agency for services to help their crops grow, without those funds, some farmers aren’t able to attend to their crops…