Farmers, Organizations Impacted by Funding Freeze Ask USDA to Honor Farmer Contracts

Since January, billions in lawfully signed federal funding contracts have been frozen for review or cancelled. As the situation unfolded, the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) surveyed our community to assess the impact. We interviewed three respondents, briefly capturing their experiences in the short video below [transcript here].

As farmers prepare for each growing season, they must make decisions with a large degree of uncertainty in the outcomes. How the weather, market, seeds, and soil respond is out of their hands. Despite their experience and planning, every year is a gamble that their yields will be what they need. Farmers must always tolerate uncertainty; however, this growing season is vastly different for the three farmers and farm organizations we interviewed.

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Jennifer Villwock is a beginning farmer and steward of 42 acres in Vermillion, Ohio. She is committed to regenerating the land and improving soil health to boost the farm’s resiliency. For more than a year, Villwock has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service and nonprofit conservation organizations to implement practices to meet these goals. 

Conservation grants confirmed that Villwock’s plans were valid and viable and provided her with financial support to implement them. Unfortunately, reimbursements for Villwock’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program grant were frozen in January. Villwock planned to plant fruit and nut trees on her farm with funding from the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program. On April 14, the USDA stopped payments for that program to restructure it under the new administration’s priorities. 

“We could be looking at a decade of setbacks, just from a couple months’ worth of policy pauses and changes,” Villwock said. 

For Rachael Maysels, executive director of FairShare CSA Coalition, federal funding made all the difference in transforming a bootstrap organization into one with far-reaching impact. In 2024, they were awarded a Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) grant by the USDA. This grant allowed FairShare CSA Coalition to conduct research and pay farmers to better understand the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model and assess how small-scale farmers could utilize it to sustain their livelihoods. 

On February 14, the FMPP grant was terminated. There has been no appeals process, meaning that the Coalition has had to reimagine, pause, scale back, or completely cancel programming that would have paid farmers for their expertise. FairShare CSA Coalition remains committed to its goals of thriving farms and vibrant communities, and Maysels wants to “communicate the urgency of the economic need of farmers” to lawmakers and the USDA.

The Ohio CAN program, funded by the now-terminated Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, was a game changer for Casey Ellington of Ellington Farms in Northeast Ohio. She and her husband doubled—or even quadrupled—the number of cows raised to satisfy their sometimes twice-a-month deliveries to the food banks. 

Ohio CAN connects local producers with a network of food relief agencies, providing farmers with fair-market prices for their products and communities with healthy, locally produced food. Participation in the program satisfied Ellington Farms’ desire to support their local community while providing them with guaranteed sales. After years of participation, the Ellingtons had scaled up production and supported local businesses by scheduling regular butcher dates. After these investments, they are left with a cancelled program and much financial uncertainty. 

“The farmers are the solution to feeding our neighbors and communities,” Ellington shared. “Access to these programs is crucial… [W]e would have to hold up our end of a contract if it was given by the government. We would just like the same respect.”

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These are just three of the countless stories of harm and challenges caused by recent federal changes. The early months of the year are a time for America’s farmers to prepare their ground and plant their seeds. Instead, this year required them to navigate funding pauses, scramble to find contingency plans, shift business models, lay off staff, or move away from farming entirely. We call on Congress and the USDA to honor farmer contracts, release withheld funds, and support our nation’s food systems by investing in our farmers. 

“We have heard from Secretary Rollins that they are continuing to review frozen funding ‘line by line.’ We understand their reasoning for reviewing federal expenditures,” said OEFFA Grassroots Policy Organizer Nicole Wolcott. “However, the freezing of funds and lack of transparency create undue harm to our agricultural communities. Farmers are counting on these signed contracts, and we call on Congress and the USDA to honor their promises by releasing funds immediately.”