Last week, I was looking for evidence that the USDA had begun to unfreeze funds for contracts signed before the current administration came into office. I came across two sites that I think are helpful to the cause. One helps us quickly contact our members of Congress. The other provides guides and free webinars for filing appeals to the National Appeals Division. Both stress that your contracts are legally binding agreements that the government must honor. So don’t be reluctant to pursue the legal avenues available to you.
Please feel free to copy and reprint this anywhere that would be helpful to farmers and ranchers.
From the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition:
Click here to email your members of Congress
In much of the country, spring is on its way. For farmers and ranchers, it’s time for planting decisions, for calving and lambing, for lining up their financial capital and markets for a busy season, and more.
But this year, it’s different: 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 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently withholding payments owed under signed, lawful contracts, causing turmoil across the food system.
This is already causing serious harm in our communities: This means farmers who’ve already installed new irrigation equipment or planted cover crops with support from USDA are now unable to receive the reimbursements they were promised, jeopardizing their financial stability. Programs that pair local farmers with local food banks are pausing their procurement plans, at the exact time growers most need to know their markets for the season. Organizations who train and support beginning farmers are instead having to lay off staff. Families are anxious about grocery store prices and the availability of food long term. These immediate impacts could compound and lead to further suffering without swift intervention from Congress.
None of this should be happening. These are signed agreements with the federal government, and USDA must honor its commitments before impacts worsen in communities nationwide. Congress can act to fix this, and they need to hear directly from folks who are affected – along with all of us who care about our local farmers and ranchers, our fellow neighbors, and the organizations that help us strengthen our communities.
Emailing takes only 60 seconds: can you email your members of Congress, demanding they step up and protect our farmers and communities from further harm?
Click here to email your members of Congress
Farm Commons Guides for Filing Appeals
These are free resources for both producers and the nonprofits that support them. You can download a PDF on legal action steps for farmers with signed contracts. It covers your rights to receive reimbursement and your ongoing obligations under the signed contract. You’ll also find instructions for filing appeals for frozen or terminated contracts. There are also webinars, including one coming on March 28 where you can interact with your peers and ask your questions about the federal funding freeze.
My federal contract or grant for funding is frozen or terminated. What can I do?
For more on funding freezes and staffing issues at USDA, here’s last week’s article.
The Back Forty
Will Westmoreland, a Missouri farmer, is building a coalition of rural and urban communities to advocate for policies that revitalize rural communities and to provide funding and educational opportunities to help farmers and ranchers weather difficult times. The movement is just beginning and you can get in on the ground floor simply by signing up for their upcoming newsletters. Working together we can protect small family farms and ensure communities have the infrastructure they need to grow and build vital economies.
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