Less Than 2 Months in: A Direct Negative Impact on our Small Farm.

I'm writing to share the direct negative impact our farm has experienced as a result of the reckless decisions of Donald Trump. 

Old North Acres *was* in year 2 of a 5 year grant through the US Department of Agriculture called Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities. It's a nation-wide program. Across the state of NC, it was a multi-million dollar grant providing incentives for small family farms to implement evidence-based practices that support the health of the earth. Examples include tree/shrub establishment, forest stand improvement, cover cropping, soil carbon amendments, prescribed burning, pasture planting of native cold and warm season grasses, and more. 

It also provided funding to support Food Hubs across the state which are organizations that aggregate and sell local food. They are a critical player in helping small farms survive because they are able to consistently buy large quantities of food from the "little guys". 

Because of Trump's bizarre fear of words like "climate", this national grant program has been frozen since January 27th. As it stands now, USDA is in breach of contract for all the farms who have signed contracts to receive funding. Some of these farmers paid for the cost of their ongoing regenerative work up-front, and now have no promise of being repaid. The same is happening for some farmers who were supposed to receive NRCS funding. 

These absurd funding freezes also have directly negative impacts on low-income folks across the nation who are food insecure. Amongst the many programs at risk of being slashed by Musk's team of wackadoos is the LFPA program, which is still in a de facto freeze. This program provides dollars for food pantries and food hubs to purchase local fresh produce, meat, dairy and eggs to provide to folks who can't afford it. Charitable distributors RELY on these funds to keep their doors open and to keep people fed. To make matters worse, the House Agricultural Committee has made clear its’ desire to cut up to $150 BILLION from its’ budget, which will have horrific ramifications for food programs like SNAP (food stamps). For reference, some 40 million Americans receive SNAP benefits. Those are kids and families who rely on those benefits to have enough to eat. 

Please enlighten me how any of this is making America great again?

I'll close this out by noting that I HAVE seen first hand the inefficiencies in USDA. It's not a perfectly run federal agency. They are massive, can be complicated to work with, and slow to respond.

HOWEVER, taking a slash and burn approach to a problem does nothing but spread confusion and mistrust. Halting national programs with a flagrant disregard for their impact on everyday Americans will have long term negative consequences for our nation's health, economy, and safety. 

The Climate Smart Commodities program is a meaningful grant that demonstrates our nation's trust in and pride for responsible small scale agriculture. I will update this post if the funds are unfrozen and the program continues. In the meantime, I have called and left a voicemail with my Congressional Representative (Chuck Edwards, Republican) but have not received a response. 

If you’d like to read a really well done report highlighting some of the small farms that have also been impacted, check this out.