A Pennsylvania nonprofit that helps farmers increase sustainability is getting ready to furlough 60 of its 82 employees if federal money is not released by the end of this month.
In 2022, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture was awarded $55 million to help farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture methods and $34 million to offset costs farm workers endured during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now the Trump Administration has frozen its contracts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has told the group to keep working on their programs, but as of Wednesday, Pasa hasn’t been paid for 40 days.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told the National Association of Counties that the USDA is returning to its “core mission of supporting farmers and ranchers.”
She said she is proud to work with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to streamline the agency.
“At the same time, I understand that this review process has caused concern among some of your farmers who participate in longstanding USDA farm programs,” Rollins said. “We are working to review these programs as quickly as possible.”
Musk wants to cut $1 trillion in federal spending by Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. An NPR analysis found early savings claims have been “inaccurate and drastically overstated.”
Climate change is creating wilder weather, and farmers have to deal with more frequent droughts punctuated by severe rain storms.
Smith-Brubaker said farmers want to do things that will make their land more resilient to climate change, but they often don’t have the resources to do it on their own.
“ We applied (for the grant) because we surveyed the farmers in our network and they overwhelmingly told us that this would make a really big difference for them,” Smith-Brubaker said.
The pause in funding comes at a critical time for farmers. Smith-Brubaker said some projects are season-dependent, such as tree-planting.
She said agroforestry is a popular project among farmers. Adding trees to pastures can give relief to livestock on hot days, allowing the animals to grow efficiently. Trees also trap planet-warming carbon dioxide.
“You can’t plant trees in the summertime,” Smith-Brubaker said.
Pasa’s work on soil health shows that fields with more organic matter can hold onto much more water. Smith-Brubaker said a 1% increase in organic matter – which includes living and decaying plants, insects and microbes – means soil can absorb up to 20,000 more gallons of water per acre.
Cover crops help trap organic matter in the soil. Wind breaks and trees can also prevent erosion, keeping soil and nutrients in place.
Smith-Brubaker said most farmers she works with don’t have an existing relationship with the USDA; they don’t feel served by the agency. She said this pull back of federal funds could leave a lasting impression.
She also feels it’s a step backwards for the agency to drop its focus on climate change.
“I don’t think that the progress we were making and the speed of that progress is going to be able to continue, at least for the next few years,” Smith-Brubaker said.
Pasa is calling for people to reach out to their representative in Congress, to ask them to unfreeze the money.