But information on the event replaced a page on the USDA website that previously led to details on the agency’s season-long annual Friday farmers’ market, which typically runs outside its Washington, D.C., headquarters from May through October, with around 30 farms and food vendors represented each week.
Former Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue visits the USDA Farmers Market in July of 2019. (Photo credit: Tom Witham, USDA)
In March, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), which typically runs the Friday market, posted a call for vendors for the 2025 season on Instagram. But while a listing in its own directory says the market is open from May to October, it never opened. A USDA email address provided as a contact within the directory no longer exists.
Nearly 100 AMS employees based in D.C. accepted a Trump administration resignation offer, which was intended to cut staff across the government, and according to two USDA employees who asked to remain anonymous due to the risk of retaliation, most of the staff working on the Friday market were among them.
