Call to Action: Help farmers get the money they are owed!

Across the country, tens of thousands of farmers and farmer-serving organizations have been thrown into limbo by an unprecedented freeze of federal funding. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is withholding payments owed under signed, lawful contracts, causing turmoil across our food system.

There’s no question that many USDA programs support big Agribusiness and are wasteful.  But that’s not the whole story.

First, whatever the merits or problems with the programs, the government signed contracts and committed to payments.  Farmers, ranchers, small food businesses, local and regional nonprofits – they have all spent money, hired people, bought supplies, and more, based on those contracts.  The U.S. government cannot simply choose to say “never mind” and ignore these legal obligations.  And every day of delay means greater financial distress for the individuals and organizations, some of whom are already defaulting on loans or laying off employees.

And what are these contracts and programs for?  Conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program allow farmers to improve their land while keeping their operations profitable, helping them manage soil health, water resources, and pasture productivity.

USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)  also funds nonprofits to provide education and technical assistance for farmers so that they can successfully implement conservation methods on their farms.  Many of the workshops on healthy soils, rotational grazing, cover cropping, and other conservation farming systems provided by our sister organization, partners, and allies rely on NRCS funding.

Other branches of USDA provide mentoring, marketing and business support.  Programs like the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program (BFRDP), Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), and Value-Added Producer Grants programs support farmers’ ability to sell directly to consumers, schools, and small retailers, keeping more food dollars in local communities rather than funneling them to corporate middlemen.

Many conservation programs are at risk because they have been put under the label of “climate-smart.”  But that is just one aspect – these programs are fundamentally about helping farmers and ranchers produce food in our country in a way that is economically and ecologically sustainable in the long run.  Other programs are being cut simply because they include “diversity” or “equity” in the name.  Many of these programs support farmers of color and military veterans, beginning farmers, and low-income (“limited resource”)  farmers – which means they help numerous small farmers who are working to provide food to their local communities.

We need programs to be evaluated on their merits, not cut just because they have a certain label.

The farmers and farmer-organizations being impacted aren’t Big Agribusiness, they don’t have lines of credit at big banks, and they don’t have teams of lobbyists looking out for them.  They need YOU to speak up for them!

TAKE ACTION TODAY! Please join us in urging lawmakers to step up and make sure that USDA honors its commitments:

1.Call your U.S. Representative and Senators and urge them to ensure that the funds that have already been appropriated by Congress are paid out as promised.  Farmers, ranchers, and nonprofits who signed contracts with the government should have those contracts honored.

Click here to FIND YOUR U.S. SENATORS.

Click here to FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES.

The message is simple: “My name is ___, and I am a constituent.  I am urging my Representative (or Senator) to take action to honor the commitments made to farmers and farmer-serving organizations around the country.  The USDA signed contracts with our people, and those funds need to be released right now, before more harm comes to the farmers and rural communities.”

If you are directly impacted by the freeze, share your personal story with them.

2. If you are a farmer or a farmer-serving organization who has been impacted:

   a. Please let us know by sending an email to FARFA at  Outreach@FarmAndRanchFreedom.org.  Please include as much information as you are comfortable sharing – what program your grant is under, how much it was for, and what impact the freeze is having on you – so that we can compile this information for our advocacy efforts.  This also includes indirect impacts, such as if you are a farmer who can’t get services from a farmer-serving organization whose funding is frozen.

   b. For your own records, document every step you take to try to get reimbursement – who you call, any time you try to access a government portal (successful or not), everything you are told and by whom.  Include the date with each entry in your records, the location (whether physical, online chat, phone number, etc) and the name of who you communicated with, and their role or title.

   c. Be sure that your U.S. Representative and Senators know that this freeze is directly impacting your farm. 

Your voice is critical to support our community. Help us ensure that the federal programs designed to support independent agriculture remain available, reliable, and accountable to the people they are meant to serve.

Thank you for standing with small and independent farmers and ranchers.

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Please join the fight – become an Agtivist on behalf of independent family farmers! Sign up for email Action Alerts and make your voice heard!

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