Freeze leaves NY farms out in the cold

Farmers see cuts to federal funding

By Erick Slattery | Manor Ink

Livingston Manor, NY – Where did the green go? Even though Congress approved it, the current administration cut the United States Dept. of Agriculture’s budget that was earmarked to administer funds to farms. These cuts impacted the agency deeply, and drastically reduced funding for the farms that supply local communities, school lunches and food banks across the country, and right here in Sullivan County.

Currently, around $6 billion that the USDA had already committed for agricultural grants has been pulled out from under many farms around the country – especially small, family-owned farms. Only about $20 million of that $6 billion has been reallocated to farms that have lost promised grants.

The USDA cannot disburse money it does not have, which affects local farmers. The funding freeze has cut programs across the country supporting agriculture. It abandons farmers who will no longer have the money they need to sustain their operations, or carry out planned improvements, or buy equipment, or recoup money that in many cases they had already laid out, expecting to be reimbursed.

This freeze has happened at a time when all farmers across America were starting to plan for their growing season over the next few months and into the year. Without the promised funding, many growers will not be able to sustain production, resulting in less food grown. Food costs are likely to rise as a result.

Pleading the case in Washington, DC

One such farmer is Iris Fen Gillingham of Gael Roots Community Farm in Livingston Manor, a nonprofit farm and agricultural education center. Recently, Gillingham went to Washington, DC, to plead her case for the grants to be reinstated. There she met with government officials, and other farmers from places all over the country, ranging from New York, North Dakota and even as far as California. Every one of these farmers was expecting money from USDA grants, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of them need this funding to repay money they had already spent.

“One of the ways that farmers are able to get food to people is through loans or grants they get from programs supported by the USDA,” said Gillingham, describing the effect of the USDA withholding money from farmers who need it most.

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Sullivan County helps farmers here, and there are CCEs in every other county in New York. There is, as of now, $138,963 owed to the county’s CCE from the USDA for expenses that were incurred under the American Rescue Plan Act throughout February. Since Feb. 1, each month that the USDA freezes Cornell’s contracts, the CCE loses about $20,000 in funding for the program.

Gillingham explained that if none of the contracts with Cornell are met, or if more funding is not found, there will be $1.5 million that will not go to Sullivan County farmers. Currently, the county CCE’s funding that isn’t being replenished is steadily increasing. Future income that farmers will not receive will range up to about $713,000.

Loss of vital information

The current administration in Washington, DC, has also instructed the USDA to remove any grants or data that contain the word “climate,” because the concept of “climate change” is not in line with President Trump’s agenda. This data removal has impacted many studies that have nothing to do with climate change, but that are still essential for farm operations because they were about weather and soil conditions crucial to successful farming. Some New York State farmers have sued the USDA, claiming that removing this information restricts access to vital statistics and thus hinders their ability to plan for the growing season. The USDA initially refused, but has now agreed to reinstate this information.

Farmers produce the nutritious food that everyone, especially growing children and teens, needs to be healthy. To be able to focus and work properly, students need nutritious food. If farms aren’t getting the support they need to provide that food for the community and its schools, the lunches cafeterias provide for their students may no longer be possible.

It follows then that for the greater good of the overall community and for our country at large, the funding promised to these farms will need to be reinstated.

NY Farm Bureau on USDA Funding

“The release of $20 million in previously frozen USDA funding, made possible by a review conducted by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, is a critical step in protecting the livelihood of farmers here in New York and across the nation. While we are greatly encouraged by this first tranche of funding restoration ... we will continue to work with Secretary Rollins and the USDA to release more funding, especially for the Rural Energy for America Program ... We remain optimistic that Secretary Rollins and the USDA will honor all previous funding contracts made directly with farmers.”

David Fisher, President, New York Farm Bureau

Freeze Leaves New York Farmers in Limbo

By Clara Hemphill, excerpted from New York Focus, nysfocus.com

President Trump’s policies will have a far-reaching effect on agriculture in New York, said Allison Morrill Chatrychiyn, a researcher in the Climate Stewards Program at Cornell University in Ithaca. Layoffs at USDA and cuts to Cornell’s long-standing agricultural research programs will make it difficult for farmers to get the information they need to adapt to climate change, she said.

“USDA layoffs will definitely have an impact on farmers in New York State and on research at Cornell,” Chatrychiyn said. “It will have a long-term effect.”

During the Biden administration, the USDA awarded $60 million to New York State to help farmers mitigate the effects of climate change under a program called Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. These funds, too, have been frozen.

As a result, eight small farmers in the Hudson Valley won’t get the first payments of grants they had been promised for projects to prevent erosion and improve the quality of their soil, said Megan Larmer, senior director of programs at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Cold Spring. For example, a vegetable farmer was planning to use his grant to buy wheat and rye seeds to be used as cover crops. Cover crops grow in the off-season and are allowed to die and decompose naturally, putting nutrients in the soil. Without the grant, the farmer will lose the benefits of a cover crop.