(Forbes) - Ever since details of the Trump Administration’s proposed cuts to the United States Department of Agriculture budget began ricocheting across newspapers and the Internet, concern has been building over the impact it might have on farmers throughout the country. With a proposed discretionary-spending reduction of 21%, communities throughout the country could be affected.

But for all the discussion about how farmers in the traditional heartland might feel these cuts, the impact on the wine industry has largely been ignored. Perhaps this is because of perceptions of the industry itself, the old misapprehension that wine is produced by people who tend to have some semblance of greater financial stability than average. Which is far from the case across the industry. Indeed, while there are plenty of producers whose fortunes—either made in wine or elsewhere—would seem to insulate them from the most immediate and deleterious effects of the proposed budget cuts, painting the entire industry with the same proverbial brush is highly inaccurate: In the United States and around the world, the finances of smaller producers and growers are often fairly fragile, and any upset to the normal balance of things (a ruined vintage, vineyard damage due to weather or fire, and more) could have disastrous results.