Help Fight Federal Budget Cuts & Protect Farmers

Poster my kids are painting showing farmers coming out to rally for our local ag support offices and key ag funding. WMass farmers are writing letters to USDA Secretary Rollins and you can too!

Join Farmers To Stop The Destruction Of Our Agriculture And Food Programs

As farmers, we are seeing tip-of-iceberg type problems in our local farming groups and agricultural support organizations from the loss of contracted grants, technical support staffing, and frozen funds at the federal level.

We want to share the down-in-the-dirt picture with you a little, for understanding what is happening to farms, and to ask for help.

Because we want to do our work, and this bull is getting in our way. So I am going to do my best to make this as uplifting as possible, rather amusing at least when not, and interspersed with edgy near-swears.

See if you can come away with which government acronym is the sexiest, in my estimation.

To start with an uplifting bit, we have seen positive change (frozen funds released to our farm) coming from public pressure already—so putting your voice to it can actually matter. Read on for how to do that and how to support farmers now. We are also putting our voice to it, here and by being one of eight farms and non-profits on the national Earthjustice lawsuit to unfreeze Inflation Reduction Act funds for food and ag.

Wherever you stand politically, I hope you will listen to me as a farmer saying these three things:

1. Existing signed contracts from congressionally-approved money and programs must not be struck down at the whim of any incoming administration.

This is an illegal violation of the separation of powers that wastes time and money invested on all sides, puts jobs, services and businesses at serious risk, and undermines future trust in government programs.

2. Climate change does not go away with the stroke of a federal pen.

3. Neither does the need for food relief.

Farmers are in the mud dealing with more erratic weather annually, and right now is the time to be making informed improvements as a matter of survival for farms across the country as weather trends worsen. Eaters take notice.

I keep using the words “climate change,” but please substitute “more erratic weather” as needed. I am mostly not kidding—we don’t need words as barriers.

For Ryan, climate resilience and response is like a full-time job on top of the regular at our farm this winter. He’s been lining up projects over the past couple years to tackle big things that will help our farm weather the bad weather and be part of the solution by sequestering carbon. It takes a long time.

This is Ryan’s nights and weekends away from the children—working on this stuff and the Granby farm fire recovery plan (which is also ridiculously affected by the situation).

The funding freezes and staffing cuts are now impeding our ability to implement all that work already put in:

• Climate resilient practices
• Improved irrigation
• Rebuilding from the Granby barn fire
• Installing renewable energy
• Providing food to schools and food bank partnerships in our wholesale program & more

And we are just one farm trying to get stuff done. I can attest that there are a lot more of us.

And we want to just do our dirty jobs.

Current Grants Frozen For Our Farm Total $165,000

At Red Fire Farm we currently have two major federal grants frozen in process. Increasingly, it looks like these will be lost entirely… unless we do something about it!

As the Lorax said: “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

It’s Worth Fighting For

The biggest one is an approved signed contract for $125,000 from the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) for helping fund the construction of a solar shed at our Granby farm to help replace some of the tractor and materials storage functions of our burned barn and provide more renewable energy.

We have to fight for this. Find out more about the Earthjustice lawsuit. It is going to take a good bit of input and involves risks. Read the suit complaint.

But I also have to say that it is one of the honors of my life to be working with Earthjustice. Heroes of using the law for environmental change!

Does Cutting Climate-Smart Programs Make Us Climate-Stupid?

As your farmer, I say yes, yes it does 🙂 The second major grant loss is the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities (PCSC) program. We were in progress with planners for enhanced climate resilience and sustainability practices in some of our cropping systems. Part of this project included funding $40,000 for modifying a spreading machine and for transport of hundreds of yards of unwanted town fall leaves to mulch various crops and incorporate into the soil later. Would be great for long-term soil building and resilience to storms.

This kind of program is how we make agriculture part of the climate solution—and simultaneously enrich our soil resource across the country for the future health of our food. Win-win-win.

Right now it’s a loss for all of us. Sucks to be US.

$1 Billion Terminated for Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA—for food banks) and Local Food for Schools (LFS). Say their acronyms.

Food Banks and Schools—take ‘em down, ’nuff said!

These two national terminations affect some of our farmer friends deeply, and will affect us because of the non-profits and schools that buy wholesale from us. It was building up local food systems to feed local people.

And what about all the people eating that fresh food?

This won’t stop our annual donations of over 35,000 meals worth of food to the Food Bank of WMA or our state-wide food relief through donations after the CSA pickups!

Local Ag Support Staff Cuts—Because Who Needs Technical Assistance Or Farm Loans?

USDA (US Dept of Ag) staff remaining in office are banned from speaking out. So let me tell you a little about what these people do for us in a couple USDA agencies.

NRCS Staff Cuts—wait ’til you hear what this acronym means.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Boom. Hold up, is that one just super-sexy to me alone?

These are the people that should be staffed to the hilt because their knowledge saves soil, water, energy.

Their technical support staff have been assisting with three major projects for our farm that involve engineering and cost share funding to be viable:

1. Enhancing energy efficiency in our greenhouses
2. Compost and organic biochar application to 200 acres of produce farmland
3. Engineering for our irrigation systems to be more effective while also conserving water and labor (a project we’d been waitlisted on for years due to already short staffing)

One key staff person with whom we worked directly has just been discontinued from his NRCS work. We’ve heard of over a dozen local USDA staff cut and more to come. The MA state USDA headquarters in Amherst was just notified of its lease being ended via the feds. Listening to the grapevine, the status is short-staffed people scrambling to cover jobs they haven’t done before as well as their own.

It is not clear if enough water engineers, greenhouse engineers and soil scientists are still employed with NRCS to get to Red Fire Farm projects and those of all other MA farmers who need similar support.

FSA Staff Cuts—Hit Us Where Farmers Get the Money, Maybe It’ll Jingle

The Farm Services Agency (FSA) is hit by staffing cuts, and they were already understaffed with long wait times. They help handle farm loan requests for big projects, like our Granby farm store rebuild that is about to require a lot of funding coverage for bridge loans and longer-termed financing.

Pretty worried about getting those loans done on time now.

Farmer Support Non-Profits Gutted by Funding Cuts—Blood and Guts Everywhere

More farmer support organizations are taking hits in the non-profit zone, CISA and MA NOFA both had program money frozen, CT NOFA may have to lay off all their staff, PASA Sustainable Agriculture in PA is having to cut 70% of staff due to funding freezes, the CSA Innovation Network had a $500,000 grant terminated that would have helped so many farms build better CSA programs and reach more people.

On and on and on and on, like the Erykah Badu song. A good one to listen to.

How Can You Help? Putting Pressure On Lawmakers Actually Works!

By putting on pressure with calls and emails on the regular, we have been able to get one of our previously frozen projects funded, the NRCS EQIP funds for spreading compost and organic biochar on our first set of fields. Yesssss!

So pressure helps!

While you’re thinking about food, here are some easy action items and calls to make on a lunch break:

1.) Contact USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins 

Call (833) ONE-USDA or (202) 720-7100, or email AgSec@usda.gov. Urge her to…

1. 1. Release Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant funds
   2. Fund Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities (PCSC) and honor commitments to farmers
   3. Fund climate resilient practices in the future
   4. Make sure the NRCS and FSA have enough staff and funds to really do their jobs saving national natural resources and farms
   5. Bring back the LFPA and LFS to get local food to local people who need it and fully fund SNAP

Message Example: “My name is [Your Name] from [City, MA], and I am a local farm supporter. The funding freeze threatens organic farmers’ livelihoods and climate resilience. Please ensure the USDA upholds its agreements and releases grant funds for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and continues to fund Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities (PCSC). Farmers need technical assistance and reimbursement for climate-smart practices. Please fully staff and fund the NRCS and FSA to support farmers and conserve our national natural resources.”

2.) Call Your Federal Congressional Reps and Senators

First, find your rep at https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. Then call, email, or meet them during district recesses (e.g., March 17–22). Demand they press USDA to unfreeze REAP and PCSC funds, using the same wording above. Add: “I am in [Zip Code]—this hits Massachusetts farmers hard.”

3.) More details about the Food Relief: Ask them all to…

1. 1. Fund the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program (LFPA), as that helps food banks and community distribution networks get fresh local food to local people in need
   2. Fund the Local Food for Schools (LFS) Program- cuz that is bleeping obvious!
   3. And while we are at it, fully fund SNAP nutrition benefits because 1 in 5 Massachusetts families face food insecurity.

4.) Talk about this stuff with friends and family. Share this blog post, too! This is a national issue, and pressure by people in other states can be even more powerful.  We need to spread the word and keep it up.

Since sending out our newsletter on this topic, I’ve been contacted by lots of people in support. A farmer in Texas called who is going to share this with all the non-profits he knows there. Who out in the wide US of A do you know?

You can say your farmers Ryan and Sarah Voiland asked you to call, on behalf of Red Fire Farm and all Massachusetts farms.

This is a call to action, if you feel at all riled up like I am.

And this is also a shout out to Ryan, and all the farmers who are f-ing creative and not stopping in the face of wall after wall of odds.

And here I end the rant with #LetUsDoOurWork.

P.S.  What Else To Do? Buy Local!

Farms like ours need support and you can help by eating! Delicious 🙂

Get a summer Farm Share – community shares are vital for our farm, and we’ve been doing them for more than 25 years, so the shares are pretty diverse and tasty.

• Granby
• Montague
• Northampton
• Amherst
• Springfield
• Worcester
• Boston downtown
• Brighton
• Cambridge – new spot by Lechmere T, and our regular spot in Mid-Cambridge at the East Cambridge Savings Bank
• Somerville – at the Armory, and also the Growing Center on Vinal Ave.
• Jamaica Plain
• Newton
• Watertown
• Home Delivery within 495!

A couple more ideas…

Bridge Funds & Land Funds—Could you be able to help?

If you happen to have larger amounts of funds potentially available for bridge financing the rebuilding for our store building in Granby, or purchasing farmland, please get in touch so we can keep being creative.

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