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Thursday, May 22, 2025
FEMA Bulletin Week of May 20, 2025
New Mexico Farmers and Ranchers Call for Action in Statewide Virtual Town Hall on Federal Cuts and Policy Shifts. May 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2025
Contact:
Sarah Wentzel-Fisher
sarah@thornburgfoundation.org,
505-280-9879
New Mexico Farmers and Ranchers Call for Action in Statewide Virtual Town Hall on Federal Cuts and Policy Shifts
Santa Fe, NM — Over 175 farmers, ranchers, and land stewards from across New Mexico gathered on the evening of May 6 for a virtual town hall to voice growing concern over stalled federal programs, delayed USDA payments, and the erosion of vital conservation and infrastructure support in the state. The event, hosted by the New Mexico Coalition to Enhance Working Lands (NMCEWL) in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, featured comments from four of New Mexico’s congressional offices, the Governor’s Office, and Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte.
Participants from tribal lands, acequia systems, urban farms, large specialty crop farms, and traditional ranches shared how USDA program freezes, tariffs, immigration policy, federal office closures, and the loss of key agency staff are threatening not only livelihoods but years of progress in land restoration, water conservation, rural economic development, and local food access. Several farmers and ranchers who spoke also serve in the New Mexico State Legislature.
“This is not about special treatment,” said Brett Lockmiller, a fourth-generation farmer in Curry County and participant with the Ogallala Land and Water Conservancy. “We made the commitment to transition to dryland farming to protect the Ogallala aquifer and support the Cannon Air Force Base mission. But without functioning conservation programs and timely funding, that commitment—and our operation—are at risk.”
Mary Ben, co-founder of Bidii Baby Foods, added, “Our business depends on the New Mexico Grown program to feed our own community. We also mentor young Indigenous farmers—but with USDA funding on hold, we’re losing momentum at a time when this support is needed most.”
Producers raised concerns about widespread disruptions caused by federal funding freezes, delayed USDA payments, and terminated grants—leaving many without operating capital and forcing some to halt conservation projects or suspend operations altogether. Across agencies like NRCS, FEMA, and the Forest Service, staffing reductions and early retirements have resulted in the loss of critical technical assistance, institutional knowledge, and local capacity for conservation planning, infrastructure repair, and grazing management. Participants emphasized that failing water infrastructure—particularly acequias and dams—requires immediate investment and coordination, not only for irrigation but also for long-term ecosystem function and community resilience.
Farmers also called attention to labor shortages driven by fear and instability near the border, the mounting uncertainty caused by shifting international tariffs, and the erosion of support for local food system programs like Double Up Food Bucks and LFPA. Many warned that if producers cannot make a living, they will be forced to sell their water rights—placing entire communities and watersheds at risk. Others noted that the loss of research funding, including efforts to breed improved chile varieties and protect pollinators, threatens the sector’s ability to adapt to climate and market shifts. Finally, participants emphasized that agricultural communities need mental health services, especially as stress levels rise amid ongoing disruption. While solutions exist, producers agreed that coordinated action from federal and state partners is essential.
Representatives from New Mexico’s congressional delegation acknowledged the significance of the challenges farms and ranches in the state are facing and pledged to take the stories and solutions shared back to Washington. State officials echoed the need for collaboration and emphasized that agriculture, food access, and conservation are critical to the health of our economy, communities, and watersheds.
A full summary of the town hall, including key themes and policy recommendations, and more quotes from participants is included below.
About NMCEWL
The New Mexico Coalition to Enhance Working Lands (NMCEWL, nmcewl.org) is a statewide network
of over 50 organizations and individuals working together to support resilient
farms, ranches, forests, and watersheds by empowering land stewards and
land-based communities.
Other quotes from farmers, ranchers, and those who support them. For more direct quotes from the transcript of the conversation, please reach out and request them.
Brett Lockmiller, fourth-generation farmer (Curry County) working with the Ogallala Land and Water Conservancy:
“We’re not asking for special treatment. We’re asking for a partnership that works.”
“Without timely funding, this whole effort falls apart—and it sends the wrong message to producers considering making the same commitment.”
Mary Ben, Bidii Baby Foods (Shiprock/Navajo Nation):
“We sell 80% of our products through the New Mexico Grown program—when that was dismantled, it didn’t just impact our business, it impacted how we feed our own community.”
“Some private foundations have stepped up with 0% interest loans to help farmers cover USDA delays. That’s a model that needs support.”
Mark Torres, rancher and vice president of the Valle Vidal grazing association (Northern NM):
“We’re lucky to have a good relationship with our range staff—but the Forest Service told us this year: 'If you want something done, you’ll have to do it yourself.’”
Ben Etcheverry, President of the New Mexico Chile Growers Association (Deming):
“It’s not a lack of labor—it’s the instability. People are afraid to come to work. That’s what’s disrupting our operations.”
“We need faster communication from agencies. We can’t make decisions when we don’t know what’s coming next.”
Don Shriver, small rancher (Rio Arriba County):
“We had a restoration project ready to go with the BLM and NRCS—then everything froze. Our young NRCS officer took a buyout. It’s heartbreaking.”
Anna Morán, co-owner of Telesfor Farm & NYFC policy staff (Albuquerque):
“I am a co-owner and a co-operator of Telesfor farm and I wear many different hats. I'm a young and beginning farmer, and I just recently transitioned onto this land. Farming doesn't always pay the bills, and so to fund my farming operation and to make it possible to farm with other young people I work with the National Young Farmers Coalition on our policy team. I’m worried that a challenging environment to farm in has just gotten a lot harder. Beginning farmers have already spent money that they're not being reimbursed for from the USDA. I'm seeing farmers stopping their operations because the funds that they were already granted and promised, or funds that they were expecting are no longer coming in. This means farms are failing before they even fully get off the ground.”
Zach Withers, Polk’s Folly Farm butcher shop and farm operator (Bernalillo County):
“Near and dear to my heart right now is Double Up Food Bucks. We run a local food store in a butcher shop where we do all of our processing. The way that we get food to people in our community who can't afford to pay the full price of local food is through programs like Double Up and EBT. The attacks on the nutrition programs really pissed me off.
I’d also like to ask for support for more local meat processing. So at the federal level there's a bill being run by Bernie Sanders to address issues related to small, mobile, modular, inspected meat processing, which would be a huge win for our business.”
Eugene Pickett, soil health advocate and Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor (Valencia County):
“Funding freezes and additional executive actions have widespread impacts on producers, conservation, delivery and local economies. NRCS termination, staffing shortages and office closures will have long-term impacts on the quality and timeliness of conservation programs, administration, technical assistance, and overall service to our country, producers and communities. We must act to protect partnerships for voluntary local, locally led conservation.”
Pam Roy, Farm to Table & NM Food and Ag Policy Council:
“We were frozen in January. We’re just now being told to move invoices forward—but everything still feels uncertain.”
“We’ll keep fighting to keep this work going at the state level. We’re in this together.”
Cecilia Rosacker Baca, farmer and Executive Director at Rio Grande Agricultural Land Trust (Socorro):
“If these NRCS conservation easements don’t go through, farmers in the Middle Rio Grande will sell their water rights—and we’ll all feel the consequences.”
Rick Martinez, Acequia Commissioner (Los Ojos): “FEMA told us our paperwork was complete—then said it wasn’t. We need clear, consistent information to move forward.
Melanie Kirby, beekeeper and pollinator conservationist:
“Without pollination, you don’t have food for humans, livestock, or wildlife. And we’re cutting pollinator research and conservation programs at the exact moment we need them most.”
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What to Do If Your Child Is the Bully
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc.
What to Do If Your Child Is the Bully
It can be difficult to accept that your child may be bullying others, but the way parents respond can help minimize any damage
May 19, 2025
Copyright 2025 Scientific American, Inc.
Malte Mueller/Getty Images
Is it ever okay—or at least, understandable—for one child to bully another?
I spend a lot of time speaking to parent groups and students about bullying, and it’s common for parents to approach me after a talk with questions about their personal situation. A mother once asked for my thoughts about a situation in which her eight-year-old son had been accused of bullying another boy.
In my experience, parents often have a hard time believing that their child could ever engage in bullying; this mother clearly accepted that the behavior had happened, yet she just as clearly felt that there were extenuating circumstances. She pointed out that the target had the annoying habit of picking his nose, and this had bothered her son, who had lashed out.
She hedged; surely, she thought, there could be circumstances under which it’s acceptable for one child to bully another.
If your child is being accused of bullying another, it can be surprising and upsetting. Beyond those understandable emotions, as a parent, you have many options to help your child understand their behavior and why it was seen as bullying.
Let’s first define what it is we are talking about: bullying means that someone repeatedly and deliberately hurts a less powerful person. Bullying is a very unhealthy and potentially damaging behavior, for both the target and the bully. Research tells us that children who bully carry mental health consequences like depression and anxiety into adulthood. This is especially true for kids who are both bullies and victims.
I think most people would agree that bullying sometimes calls for punishment, and often calls for interventions; but is bullying ever a behavior that calls for understanding? If your child is being aggressive once (which doesn’t meet the definition of bullying), and in self-defense, that may indeed be excusable. On the other hand, if your child is bullying, that repeated torment is not excusable. I reminded the mother whose son bullied the nose-picking child that bullying is harmful to both individuals, so even when it happens because of a provocation, it shouldn’t be shrugged off.
What’s interesting is that generally, children don’t excuse bullying. In a study in which scientists interviewed elementary school children (both those involved and uninvolved in bullying) in Sweden to understand how kids view bullying, the students tended to think that bullies were either psychologically troubled, or alternatively, attention seekers—bullying to gain social status (in other words, that they wanted other children to see their power and admire it).
Kids who bully others, however, tend to have justifications for their behavior. In my study of more than 2,200 teens, about 62 percent of those who admitted bullying others offered one or more of the following explanations: “People didn’t try to understand my point of view,” or “I needed to show I wasn’t intimidated or afraid,” or “My behavior was taken way too seriously; I never meant it.”
It’s important to understand that kids can engage in bullying for a variety of reasons. Parents may think of bullying as a behavior reserved for only truly disturbed kids. The research, however, shows that some youth who bully are otherwise doing well socially, while others, who tend to be both bullies and targets, struggle more with making friends and being social. It can be difficult to believe that a child who does well in school and has friends could actually be a bully.
What should parents do when their children are accused of bullying? How should they handle their child’s protests that they were justifiably provoked? Should they believe their child and accept the reasons for the bullying? Should the response be punishment, intervention or understanding—or all three?
The word bullying tends to be overused, and is sometimes applied to any situation (repeated, deliberate or not) when someone hurts someone else. How you approach the situation may be completely different if the aggression in question only happened once, or between two children with relatively equal social and physical power, which likely would not be bullying.
If the power dynamic is unequal, and it appears to be a bullying situation, talk to everyone to determine the facts. Make it clear to everyone involved that you’re approaching this with an open mind. The school’s perspective is almost certain to be different from your child’s. It’s not hard to imagine a situation where a school counselor explains that your child has bullied another student, but your son or daughter claims they were just mad and not thinking. Bullying is a behavior that is planned out. It is not an impulsive, one-time response to someone else’s provocation. A target may have engaged in nose-picking, and that may have been genuinely irritating; but repeated aggression against them isn’t impulsive or thoughtless.
While many parents are understandably reluctant to simply disbelieve their child, pointing out that there are other possible explanations doesn’t mean you’re calling your own child a liar. You can say things like: “You mentioned that you didn’t mean to hurt their feelings, but you must have taken a long time to draw all that graffiti on their car. Writing all those hurtful words doesn’t sound like an accident.”
Many children don’t yet grasp that different people can have different interpretations of the same behavior. It may not have occurred to your child that what seemed like self-defense to them appeared to be something else entirely to others.
Once you’ve understood the situation and had a chance to think through it, you’re ready to teach your child a few life lessons. Acknowledge that some of the circumstances may have provoked your child, but then draw a clear line between feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Point out that everyone is entitled to their thoughts and feelings, and sure, people can make us feel uncomfortable, angry or upset. But how you act is different from a feeling. No one has the right to hurt others, no matter what their feelings are.
You can also discuss alternative actions that can help in difficult situations. Is there an adult (perhaps a counselor or favorite teacher) who could help your child cope at school with their feelings (instead of acting out their aggression)? Maybe a friend can help them feel calmer and less aggressive. Or you can help your child find an activity to help them calm down when they are feeling aggressive.
Be sure to point out how the choices you make to act can result in real-world consequences. Consequences always need to be age-appropriate, and if possible, they can help rectify the hurt your child may have caused. When one of my children was a kindergartner, he made fun of another child because of their favorite stuffed toy. Our solution was to have him buy that child another of the same stuffed toy, with his own allowance, and give it to the target as a way of saying sorry. My child is now grown, but he still remembers that episode.
Finally, consider your child’s environment. Think about their technology use. Children differ markedly in how much aggression in video games or, say, on social media influences their behavior. One study of more than 40,000 teens in Russia found that aggression on social media was very common, but that different teens responded to it quite differently. Some tended to copy the aggression, while others saw it as part of the app’s amusement. Consider if your child tends to behave aggressively after interacting aggressively with others online, and discuss with them alternative activities while limiting their time spent online.
Bullying isn’t healthy, so consider counseling. Aggressive behaviors can be impulsive, but they can also reflect psychological struggles. A large meta-analysis of many studies found that emotional difficulties greatly increased the chances of being involved in bullying (either as a bully or a victim, or both). Is your child having trouble making or keeping friends? Perhaps they’re also a victim of bullying (it is not unusual for a child to be both a perpetrator and a victim of bullying). Maybe your child is coping with a bout of loneliness, depression or persistent anxiety. Maybe their best friend has abandoned them. The possible list of stressors could be long, but pursuing professional help can make a big difference in the outcome of a bullying situation.
Parents of kids who struggle with aggressive behavior can look forward to the summer as a time when less rigid, and more forgiving, behavior standards might ease their stress. But the summer is also an opportunity to discuss and explore these situations more deeply with your child or teenager. Any habit—including using aggression—benefits from reminders and reinforcing positive behaviors. So plan to continue that as you move into the new school year and monitor your child closely to make sure their psychological and emotional needs are being met.
This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
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