USDA Forced To Freeze Funding To Small Farms

USDA Forced To Freeze Funding To Small Farms

USDA's funding freeze is affecting small farms and local food

We were awaiting payment for a USDA grant awarded to us in 2024 when the Administration froze all payments on January 27th. Initially we were hopeful that the judge’s ruling would lift the freeze, but the Administration has kept the freeze in place.
 
The grant would have allowed us to expand our regenerative farming approach. My wife Sue and I took money out of retirement savings to pay for work completed in October 2024 with the expectation that the USDA would uphold their end of the bargain. Other farmers have done similar.
 
Perhaps that was a bit naive on our part. Our grant was awarded out of USDA’s Climate Smart Commodities Partnership. It would help us conserve more forest, reduce fire risk without the use of herbicides while providing food and medicine for our cattle. With the word “climate” in it, it was bound to be a target for the Administration. I think of it as a Conservation grant. Most farms cut down forest to make room for cattle. This grant would have allowed us to conserve the forest by fencing it and allowing our Pineywoods Cattle herd to graze it, also know as silvopasture.

Small Farms and Food Assistance Programs Targeted

What neither Trump’s Administration nor Congress or USDA understand is that our regenerative farming approach is not wishful thinking, it has a proven track record and is good for business.

Our proof-of-concept incorporated our Pineywoods herd into 15 acres of forest. This has significantly reduced our vet and medicine expenses. Animal weight has increased by an average of 13.5%. The positive improvements the Pineywoods Cattle have had in the forest and on the ecology of the farm are dramatic, see for yourself. Biodiversity is thriving here. We have discovered over 700 species of birds, insects, reptiles, plants and more.

One ecological improvement is the herd carrying the benefits of the forest to the pastures. They eat from the Black Walnut trees which contain the natural anti-parasitic, juglone, which is proven to help control gastrointestinal worms. We don’t have to administer anti-parasitic medicines which can kill dung beetles. As a result, we have a healthy dung beetle population in our pasture. They compete with fly larvae for resources in the dung and they fertilize and aerate our pastures for free. Like I said, it’s good for business.

The North Carolina Forest Service approves of our approach. They explicitly excluded cattle from our original Forest Management Plan. They changed their minds after witnessing the improvements in our proof-of-concept. NC Forest Service have now accepted cattle as a vital part of managing our forest, reducing invasive plants and wildfire risk.

The Climate Smart Commodities Partnership grant was awarded to us based in part on the benefits listed above.

The Local Food Purchase Assistance program (LFPA) is also targeted to be cut from USDA and reverted to its predecessor, Farmers to Families Food Box (FFFB). This has yet another negative impact on small farms. Under FFFB most produce came from distant large growers.

As a result of USDA working with food assistance organizations from across the nation, LFPA offers several improvements over FFFB.:

• LFPA dramatically increases the supply of fresh vegetables donated from local farms.
• LFPA reduces the amount of spoiled food that needs to be disposed of because it is sourced locally

These improvements have increased the amount of food assistance available dollar-for-dollar over FFFB.

Reverting to FFFB or a similar program will prioritize big farms over small farms. While preparing for another round of big farms bailouts in response to retaliatory tariffs, some Agriculture Committee members in Congress are criticizing small farmers for relying on Climate Smart Commodities Partnership funding in the first place.

On the forest fenceline around the 65 acres for which the grant was awarded

Loyalty Vs Representation

Climate politics aside, legally, if USDA doesn’t meet their obligation to pay small farms, it’s a breach of contract. 

I have contacted my members of Congress asking them to take ownership of this. Congress passed the funding, not the Administration. My understanding is that the Administrations action is not only illegal, but also unconstitutional.
 
Senator Tillis’ office and Representative Hudson’s office have responded assuring me that they will get back to me once they have more information. Although I appreciate their attempts, I think they’re handcuffed politically. If it’s a choice between small farms like us and their political survival, they must remain loyal to Trump. Senator Budd’s office remains silent after 3 attempts to contact him.

If Trump won’t follow the law and Republican lawmakers won’t stand for their constituents small farmers have a slim chance of receiving payment for this grant. After 39 days we have heard nothing from Congress nor USDA about our grant status.

How You Can Help Small Farms Affected by the Funding Freeze

This is a strength in numbers game. Your voice may help tip the scales in favor of small farms and local food. You can help by:

1. Calling  your U.S. Representatives and Senators and telling them to force USDA to honor their commitments to farmers. A sample script is available here.
   
2. Support our fundraiser for Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

 
About our Fundraiser: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) understands the impacts these freezes will have on North and South Carolina farmers and on our local food system. CFSA is working to reduce food insecurity while supporting small organic and regenerative farms with their FarmSHARE program. They are heavily involved in advocating for funding for farms recovering from Hurricane Helene and now for farms that are being affected by the current USDA funding freeze. They are fighting for small farms.

We started a fundraiser for CFSA the day after the freeze was announced, selling shirts with a new painting I did of our Pineywoods Bull Rocky with our farms tagline “Graze Against The Machine” emblazoned. We’ve reached out to NC and SC businesses and so far we have matching donations of $10/shirt up to 50 shirts sold in February. If you’d like to match shirts sales with any amount for shirts sold in February, March or for the rest of 2025, please contact us. Our fundraiser will run through the end of 2025 and possibly beyond. If you don’t need a shirt and would still like to help, you can make a donation to CFSA directly via their website..

Wearing the fundraising shirt with Rocky

This article was originally published on February 20, 2025 and updated with infographic on March 14, 2025