Inside the ‘America First’ makeover of a global hunger program

What the report says

Grist reports that the Trump administration’s overhaul of USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation Labs has halted much of a global agricultural research network that had linked U.S. universities with scientists in lower-income countries. The article centers on Bassirou Sani Boubacar Gaoh, a plant breeder in Niamey, Niger, whose Penn State-linked project trained farmers to detect crop pests and diseases affecting staples such as millet, rice and sorghum.

According to Grist, Boubacar Gaoh’s team was preparing in January 2025 to expand work on biological controls for the millet head miner, a moth that can damage pearl millet harvests, when a stop-work order suspended most USAID overseas programs. Grist says nearly all of the 17 core Innovation Labs later received termination notices, leaving Boubacar Gaoh on a small donor-backed stipend while his Niger team was dismissed.

The report says the White House later described the canceled spending as “woke, weaponized, and wasteful,” and that all but one lab had been gutted. The Kansas State University cereals lab was allowed to continue, while questions over the president’s authority to withhold congressionally appropriated funds were ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court in favor of presidential discretion, according to the article.

Grist reports that the State Department has since sought proposals for a redesigned Feed the Future Innovation Labs program, with expected awards of $20 million to $40 million. Former USAID officials and lab leaders told Grist they worry the new version could shift attention away from African regions facing severe food insecurity and climate-linked crop threats, and toward projects more closely aligned with U.S. policy priorities.