Waste Watch: Giving Away The Farm

By Katherine Zehnder
Carolina Journal

The federal US Department of Agriculture is spending nearly a million taxpayer dollars to fund studies into cost-effective ways to raise crickets as a sustainable source of protein.

The expenditure was recently highlighted among a laundry list of “government waste” in a recent letter to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-chairs of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-IA, criticizes spending government dollars on what she considers wasteful projects that do not sufficiently support such a critical part of the nation’s economy. Generating $111.1 billion annually in North Carolina, agriculture is the state’s No. 1 industry.

Ernst asserts that “no one works harder” than farmers and ranchers.

“Every single American depends on the fruits of their labors,” reads the letter. “So nothing bugs me more than the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) gives away farm aid to pay for pet projects (…).” 

A USDA grant of $131,500 was awarded in 2023 to Mighty Cricket, INC., located in Balwin, MO. The same recipient received an additional grant of $650,000 for fiscal year 2024. The money goes to fund research on a more cost-effective method of producing crickets as a sustainable source of protein. Cricket protein retails at more than twice the cost of traditional proteins. 

Balwin is in Missouri’s second congressional district, represented by Congresswoman Ann Wagner, R-MO. The grants fall under the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR), which are congressionally mandated programs aimed at directing federal funds in research, supporting scientific excellence, and promoting technological innovation. 

The USDA has also funded a study under a USDA Cooperative Agreement that investigated the ability of pigs to learn to operate joy-stick video game tasks. The results of a study like this do nothing to support the agriculture industry. Other groups that funded this study include the National Pork Producers Council, the Pennsylvania Pork Producers Council, and the Pennsylvania Agriculture Experiment Station.

“At the end of the day, many farmers in America are struggling to make ends meet,” Kelly Lester, policy analyst for the Center for Food, Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “Government subsidies already favor mega-farms; the last thing small and midsize farmers need is wasteful spending on useless endeavors.”

Through our Waste Watch series, Carolina Journal shines a spotlight on wasteful government spending at both the state and federal levels, exposing projects that squander taxpayer dollars.