Liliana Bachelder is the president of AFSCME Local 3976 (District Council 20). She has worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service for 31 years, serving most recently as an international trade specialist.

Bachelder says what she and her colleagues have gone through in the past six months is unlike anything she has ever experienced professionally, “not even close.”

“There had been RIFs [Reduction in Force] before at the USDA during my career, but never one at the Foreign Agricultural Service,” she says. “And in 2012, the RIF involved input from unions and a lot of back and forth with Congress. Nobody here has ever opened up their computer to find out they were terminated.”

The attacks from the new administration were so blunt that more than 120 employees at the agency left voluntarily through buyouts.

“We have lost a massive amount of talent,” she says. “People with the knowledge just aren’t here. This will impact communities across the United States that rely on the income generated by agricultural trade.”

The lack of support for American farmers will reverberate throughout the economy.

“It will have an impact especially in rural communities where adjunct industries support the export of American products,” Bachelder says. “Not only will the farmer or grain trader be affected, but everyone in the chain that gets the wheat, and other agricultural products, from the field to the ocean to overseas markets.”

In short, supporting American farmers will not just help the agriculture industry. It will also prop up a wide range of businesses that employ thousands of people and make our entire economy thrive.