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Brett Grant first heard whisperings of a calling toward growing food, community and healing back in his childhood on a trip with his father to Mount Pleasant, Texas. As they made their way through the tall Texas prairie grass, keeping a nervous eye out for snakes, it moved Brett to know that the land beneath their feet was once in his family. Many years later, during college, Brett started studying Booker T. Washington and learned that the agricultural curriculum at Tuskegee was based on the needs of the surrounding community. Washington’s educational philosophy emphasized the interconnectedness of “head, hand, and heart,” advocating for a holistic approach to learning and development. The approach resonated with Brett, and he continued to explore holistic education through his subsequent dissertation.
Brett’s first livestock on the farm included two inherited goats and then a small flock of chicks from a neighbor he’s now raising in the screened-in porch. Kacey Deamer / Cornell Small Farms Program
When he finished his PhD, he made a promise to himself: “I don’t want to just do this theoretically. I want to put this into practice.” He started dreaming of a farm and wellness center that could be intellectually, practically and emotionally uplifting for the community.
Brett started looking for land with like-minded collaborators in the greater Minneapolis region. He felt the location of the land didn’t matter as much as the people he was partnering with. But ultimately the right opportunity did not materialize, and Brett eventually made his way to New York City to begin a post-doc position at Columbia University. On some of his early car excursions leaving the city to explore rural Upstate New York, he was touched by the beauty of the landscape.
He discovered a website that helped match aspiring farmers with existing farms, and came across a listing in Chenango Forks, a hamlet in Broome County, New York, situated where the Chenango and Tioughnioga rivers meet. Like the meeting of rivers, threads from Brett’s past experiences and future aspirations seemed to easily converge at his first farm visit. The owners had built a spacious indoor pool in a heated building which brought back joyful memories of childhood swimming and invited the possibility of reviving his past work as a hot yoga instructor. The farmhouse, pastures, livestock barns and solar panels offered all the infrastructure he hoped for.
Small Farms Radio · Episode 7 – Hidden Pearls: Contemplating Healing in AgBut while it seemed serendipitous in many ways, just as the ownership transition was underway, Brett’s post doc position ended. His vision had made it this far, and he wasn’t willing to give up. Noting the farm’s 1-hour drive away from Cornell University, he sent some feelers about job openings and was delighted when an opportunity arose at the Cornell Nutrition Liberation, Food Sovereignty, and Justice lab. Now in a more secure position, Brett proceeded to navigate the purchase and transition, which involved many months of visits with the owners, learning about the land and infrastructure.
Though Brett is relatively new to farming, he’s learning quickly on the job and through a network of farmers and educators he’s connected with. Kacey Deamer / Cornell Small Farms Program
Now as the new owner, Brett has begun the process of building relationships with other growers and collaborators who will eventually become co-owners on some of the lower 52 acres as the Chenango Forks Collective. Building trust, writing bylaws and understanding how the cooperative will function takes time.
“It’s going to be really difficult because now we’re moving from me to we, and working as a group under Democratic control and governance,” Brett said.
But he feels farming within a community and partnering with others as equal farm owners is the best way.
“I do not have the skills to fix a tractor, to know how to plant, or to put up fencing, but there are other people around who know,” Brett explained. “The universe will connect me with those people and I’ll figure it out. All I have to do is set myself in motion and not give in to the fear.”
As he is relatively new to farming and this land, there are plenty of challenges and uncertainties. When asked how he resists giving in to fear, he shares that spiritual practices are important. Prayer, stillness, and fasting for spiritual clarity are practices he prioritizes.
“I see so much fear in my own family and community — people not trying something because they were too afraid,” he said. “I don’t want to live that way.”
He describes a fire pit near the crest of the hillside where he sometimes sits at night appreciating the silence and stillness, a welcome contrast to the ongoing problem-solving and critical thinking required for farm maintenance and planning.
Brett has begun the process of building relationships with other growers and collaborators who will eventually become co-owners on some of the lower 52 acres as the Chenango Forks Collective. Kacey Deamer / Cornell Small Farms Program
Wellbeing is at the center of Brett’s vision for this land. In addition to the Chenango Forks Collective, he is creating Hidden Pearls Healing Center to provide opportunities for visitors to enjoy beauty, healing, nourishment and community. He is seeking schoolteachers and students to work with as co-facilitators, co-designing learning experiences centered on growing food, cooking, exploring and playing together.
Inspired by a book called “Liberating Teaching and Learning,” he says he wants children visiting the farm to see, feel and taste freedom “I think offering space for emergence is really important,” he said. “What can emerge if I just help to facilitate the environment?”
At the end of my conversation with Brett, I invite him to reflect on the gifts he brought to the manifestation of his dream. He said that the landscape of his family home in northern California helped him see possibility.
“I had oceans and mountains and rivers and lakes. And it just gave me this sense of awe and wonder,” he shared. “That never went away.”
As our conversation winds down, we walk back outside, looking down over the river valley and the pastures, now lush and tall, that will eventually be stewarded by the Farming Collective. My conversation with Brett has left me reflecting on awe and wonder, and how it can lead a child visiting ancestral Texas prairie eventually to a river valley in upstate NY.
Having learned of Brett’s dreams for this land makes the valley all the more beautiful.
Brett Grant is the steward and visionary of Hidden Pearls Farm & Healing Center. To reach Brett, send an email to hiddenpearlshealingcenter@gmail.com.
The post Head, Hands and Heart: Hidden Pearls Farm & Healing Center appeared first on Cornell Small Farms.
Editor’s Note: This blog post is a guest post authored by the National Farm to School Network, which is an NSAC member.
The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program has had an incredible reach, providing $100 million in awards to 1,275 projects since 2013. On September 10, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it was opening applications for the FY 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program. National Farm to School Network applauds USDA for this new launch, especially after two key farm to school programs were canceled in March: the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program and the $660 million Local Food for Schools and Child Care (LFSCC) program. LFSCC, which directly funded food purchases from local farmers, has not returned. The Patrick Leahy Program supports farm to school efforts broadly but offers little funding for local ingredients.
We would like to thank all the legislators who expressed concern and asked questions to USDA Secretary Rollins through a joint letter and through multiple hearings. We also want to thank our local and state partners who shared their stories about the impact of the recent cut and advocated for its continuation.
We are also incredibly grateful to USDA for making farm to school a priority, which was featured in the agency’s recent Small Family Farms Policy Agenda. We urge USDA to continue to find ways to bolster local procurement, school gardens, and agriculture education. Farm to school is truly a triple win for our nation’s farmers, kids, and communities.
The Good News:There’s ample time to submit gather and submit an application
Farm to school champions have just under three months – until December 5th – to submit applications.
There’s up to $18 million on the table
USDA has shared it will award up to $18 million, subject to availability of funds. While this amount is less than what we hoped given the cancellation of the $10 million fiscal year (FY) 2025 cycle, if fully awarded, this would be the largest annual round of awards since the program began in 2013!
USDA is providing more technical assistance that ever
This technical assistance takes the form of a webinar and several office hours:
*Edit: The government shutdown on October 1 will likely affect USDA’s office hours—it is unclear whether they will be postponed or cancelled.
- Webinar: October 1, 2-3pm ET [register here] *cancelled due to the Oct 1 government shutdown. Please stay tuned for updates.
- Office Hours: All sessions will be held from 2:00-3:00 PM Eastern Time on:
· October 8, 2025 (Click Here to Join)
· October 21, 2025 (Click Here to Join)
· November 5, 2025 (Click Here to Join)
· November 18, 2025 (Click Here to Join)
· December 2, 2025 (Click Here to Join)
Partnerships are now required (with some exceptions)
While project partnerships were common in previous award cycles, the FY 2026 RFA now requires applicants other than State agencies and Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs) to apply as a partnership. A partnership is a group of three or more entities, including a coordinating entity, that will participate in the proposed grant project. All projects must include at least one child nutrition program (CNP) as a partner.
We’re glad to see USDA affirm that strong partnerships are the foundation of successful farm to school programs. However, the new mandatory CNP partner regulation may cause some hardship for some. Projects not specific to CNPs, such as research or solving broader problems, will now have to shift. For example, work that focuses on food supply chain innovations or providing training to farmers may be constrained. In addition to producers, the CNP partnership requirement may also present difficulties for early childcare sites that do not participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) due to burdensome paperwork or regulations. If these sites want to submit a proposal, they will need to adjust their project ideas to include an official CNP partner and then secure one, even though they already feed children every day. That feels like a tall ask for two groups that are already stretched thin.
Finding partners and ensuring proposals meet these guidelines may require extra time and intentionality. Please refer to NFSN’s state partner map or connect with your own state’s farm to school network if you need assistance finding project partners.
Projects must be at least $100,000
Increasing the project proposal floor to $100,000 marks a truly dramatic change. Since 2013, 97% of previous grant awards representing 88% of funding have been for under $100,000. Before this, there was no project request floor and the award cap was increased from $100,000 to $500,000 just in 2022 for multi-state or multi-Tribal projects. The award cap for the Turnkey Grant track, which spanned 2021-2024, was even smaller, at $50,000.
The Match: Providing a 25% match has always been a barrier to participation. As the cost of a project increases, so does the match. Page 15 of the RFA explains the formula: If the federal grant request is $100,000 (the new minimum), this means applicants will have to provide a match amount of $33,334, bringing the total project cost to $133,334.
While creating high-award and high-impact grant projects makes sense to streamline operations at USDA, it is likely that many small-scale projects and smaller-size applicants will be excluded from this grant opportunity. Many rural schools may not want to request $100,000 for a project, even if they could afford the match. Additionally, there are less than ten states that have established and funded similar competitive farm to school grant programs at the state-level. This will leave a large gap for funds to seed farm to school programs, especially for the Southeast, Mountain Plains, Southwest, and Midwest regions.
Therefore, applicants must be more intentional about project partners for their applications this cycle. Multiple small projects can team up to form larger cohesive proposals, and applicants with greater capacity can reflect on how they are able to step up for grassroots partners through regranting or partnership.
Equity scoring criteria is removed
The FY 2025 cycle was canceled because the grant’s scoring criteria added bonus points related to equity. Therefore, it’s no surprise that this was removed from the FY 2026 cycle.
Specifically, the previous RFA added up to seven bonus points for racial equity priorities, including tribal organizations, and organizations led or staffed by people of color and serving communities of color. This scoring boost wasn’t limited to racial equity. Up to three bonus points went toward small-to mid-size producers and producer groups, child nutrition programs in rural areas, and projects that serve high proportions (40%+) of students that are eligible for free and reduced breakfast.
While NFSN recognizes that diversity, equity, and inclusion measures are explicitly not part of the Trump Administration, these bonus points helped level the playing field for many different kinds of communities that have historically faced discrimination.
Removal of grant tracks
Previous cycles included multiple grant tracks: State Agency, Implementation, and Turnkey (further subdivided into Agriculture Education, Edible Garden, and Planning tracks). This RFA removes all grant tracks.
While this ‘streamlining’ may have some benefits such as giving more freedom to applicants, it also may come with some unintended consequences. With multiple tracks, it is easier for grantors to earmark certain funds for specific purposes or groups to ensure fair or strategic distribution. The Turnkey track (which allowed awards of up to $50,000) was also designed to be more plug-and-play for applicants new to farm to school or looking to engage in small projects. The elimination of the Turnkey grant track and the increased award minimum will make it harder for these applicants to apply.
To Wrap It Up:National Farm to School Network is thrilled at the launch of the FY 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Cycle. This funding is critical to support the growth of farm to school programs across the country. With three months to develop proposals and additional technical assistance from USDA staff, we are looking forward to seeing how the up to $18 million will get awarded.
The key changes this round include: (1) requirement for partnerships for non-state agency and Indian Tribal Organization applicants, (2) new request minimum of $100,000, and (3) removal of equity bonus point scoring criteria, (4) removal of grant tracks.
The new FY 2026 structure has the potential to support large-scale, ambitious projects that can transform farm to school. However, it also risks leaving out smaller initiatives that have long been the backbone of this movement. Ensuring project proposals meet the new partnership requirements and navigating partnerships thoughtfully and equitably will be key to ensuring that all communities have a chance to benefit from this funding.
Our organization has created a dashboard with visualizations and descriptions of the 1,275 grant projects awarded thus far – $100M since 2013! While there are significant changes in this grant cycle, our dashboard can help you learn more about successful projects and find out who was awarded in your area.
Collaborate with NFSN On Your Project:NFSN is excited to work with our partners on joint proposals, ranging from a main partner to a small consulting role. If you are interested in teaming up with NFSN for a project, please email one of our staff members or email info@farmtoschool.org.
The post Guest Blog Post: The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant FY 2026 Cycle is Open! appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
On September 22, 2025, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) submitted comments opposing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding – one of the United States’ most critical tools in the fight against climate change. The Endangerment Finding established the scientific and legal basis requiring Clean Air Act regulation of greenhouse gas emissions to protect public health and welfare, and it underpins most US climate rules. Depending on EPA’s final approach, the rescission could impact regulations far beyond motor vehicle emissions.
The EPA proposal ignores decades of comprehensive, peer-reviewed science and relies almost exclusively on a draft report from the Department of Energy’s ‘Climate Working Group’, a since-disbanded group of five climate skeptics who do not represent scientific consensus. In their chapter on agriculture, the report’s authors go so far as to claim that “there is reason to conclude that on balance climate change has been and will continue to be neutral or beneficial for most US agriculture.”
The reality of farming in the United States tells a different story. Climate change is already disrupting agricultural production across most major crops and regions.
Due to climate change and depending on the region, farmers and farmworkers nationwide face:
- Unprecedented heat and drought that have led to crop and livestock stresses, yield losses, and depleted surface and groundwater resources;
- More intense weather and changing precipitation patterns, heavy rains, hurricane winds, and floods, as well as increasing pest pressures;
- Decrease in quality and availability of forage; and
- Rising hospitalizations and fatalities from heat and more airborne pollution (including wildfire smoke). These hazards disproportionately affect the 3 million farmworkers who do two-thirds of the labor to put food on American tables.
The EPA’s rationale contradicts both established science and farmers’ on-the-ground reality. As NSAC details further in its comment – joining tens of thousands of others highlighting the proposal’s departure from evidence – the Endangerment Finding should remain in place and the rescission proposal should be withdrawn.
Read NSAC’s full comment here.
The post NSAC Counters DOE Claim: Climate Change is Harming, Not Helping, US Agriculture appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Zaks
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
press@sustainableagriculture.net
Tel. 347.563.6408
Release: NSAC Presses for More Details, Better Process on USDA ReorganizationWashington, DC, October 1, 2025 – Yesterday, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) submitted a comment outlining concerns with the proposed US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reorganization plan detailed in Secretary Memorandum 1078-015.
In its comments, NSAC emphasized that while it supports USDA’s stated goals of enhancing effectiveness, accountability, and service delivery, the current proposal was made without input from farmers, lacks sufficient detail, and risks undermining core functions of the agency. NSAC warned that the plan could destabilize agricultural research, conservation programs, technical assistance, and access to critical components of the farm safety net.
“Our members, more than 170 grassroots organizations representing family farmers, ranchers, and rural communities, are deeply concerned that this reorganization could worsen the challenges many producers are already facing,” said Mike Lavender, NSAC Policy Director, adding: “We urge USDA to revise its approach and engage meaningfully with stakeholders to ensure reforms strengthen, rather than weaken, the Department’s ability to serve our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and the broader public.”
The letter was submitted electronically to reorganization@usda.gov as part of the public comment process, which closed yesterday.
Read NSAC’s full comment here.
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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC):
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more: https://sustainableagriculture.net/
The post Release: NSAC Presses for More Details, Better Process on USDA Reorganization appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
Washington, DC, October 1, 2025 – Today, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) issued the following comment in response to the government shutdown after Congress failed to reach a funding agreement, attributable to Mike Lavender, NSAC Policy Director.
“In a challenging moment for farmers and the farm economy, the government shutdown will further destabilize – and in some cases stop – federal services that offer critical loans, disaster assistance, conservation funding, and more. The shutdown also threatens food safety, leaving states on the hook to fund food safety inspections once their cooperative agreements expire. With nearly half of all US Department of Agriculture (USDA) staff furloughed, farmers can expect limited services and delayed payments. These disruptions will worsen with time and be exacerbated if the Administration implements a ‘reduction-in-force’ plan to fire more USDA employees. NSAC encourages Congress and the President to set-aside finger pointing and work toward an agreement that brings stability to farmers and the communities they call home.”
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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC):
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more: https://sustainableagriculture.net/
The post Comment: NSAC Laments Government Shutdown as It Harms Farmers, Halts Progress appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
On July 24, 2025, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins released memorandum SM-1078-015 announcing a proposed reorganization of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The proposal was drafted without consultation with farmers or other key stakeholders. Since the beginning of 2025, the agency has already lost more than 20,000 employees, and if implemented, the restructuring could trigger thousands more departures.
In response to a public outcry, USDA opened an ad hoc opportunity for feedback on the proposal. NSAC is encouraging farmers, advocates, and organizations to submit their perspectives on the proposed reorganization to reorganization@usda.gov by September 30, 2025. Still, NSAC remains seriously concerned that USDA has bypassed the standard practice of issuing a Federal Register notice to formally solicit public input on a change of this scale.
This post is the fourth installment in our series examining USDA’s staffing crisis and the ripple effects of the proposed reorganization. Here, we highlight staffing declines within the Farm Service Agency (FSA), where staff reductions threaten to undermine the agency’s ability to administer farm safety net programs, deliver disaster assistance, and provide critical support to farmers across the country. Our earlier posts looked first at overall USDA and state-level staff losses, the implications for the Department’s research agencies, and the loss of staff at the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
FSA Staff Numbers Have Fallen for Two DecadesThe Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers loans and payments to farmers and landowners, operating through a network of more than 2,000 state and county offices. FSA staff help farmers apply for loans, price support programs, income support, disaster recovery, and a variety of other financial support programs. FSA, quite literally, keeps the money flowing for millions of American farms and ranches.
FSA employees include national, state, and county office staff. About ⅔ of FSA employees are county staff, working directly with farmers and landowners in local offices spread across the country. In 2024, for instance, approximately 7,168 employees were FSA county staff and approximately 3,402 were FSA state or national employees.
Figure 1: FSA Staff in FY2024
*While FSA state and national staff are “typical” federal employees, FSA county staff are technically employees of county or community committees and are not considered federal general service employees by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Therefore, there is unfortunately much less information available concerning FSA county staff than concerning FSA state and federal staff.FSA staffing levels have steadily eroded over recent decades. Even before the staff losses sustained during the current administration, the number of federal and state FSA staff declined by 43% between fiscal year 2005 and the beginning of fiscal year 2025. The number of county FSA staff declined by 22% during the same twenty year period. The National Association of Farmer Elected Committees recently sounded the alarm that there are now fewer than 6,000 FSA county office employees nationally, a 34% reduction from 2005 staffing levels.
Figure 2: FSA Staff by Fiscal Year
*FSA state and federal staff numbers come from the Office of Personnel Management; FSA county numbers come from USDA annual budget explanations Accelerated FSA Staffing LossesThe FSA has lost at least 1,200 additional employees just since January 2025. Approximately 499 FSA national and state employees and 674 FSA county employees opted to accept the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP). The DRP encouraged federal employees to resign from their positions in exchange for receiving full pay and benefits through September 2025. Approximately 88 additional FSA state and national employees separated from the agency between January and March 2025, according to OPM. Unfortunately, since FSA county employees are not tracked by OPM, it is unknown how many FSA county employees also separated from the agency during this new administration.
Table 1: Recent FSA Staffing Losses
*FSA state and federal staff numbers come from the Office of Personnel Management; FSA county numbers come from USDA annual budget explanationsAltogether, the FSA is entering the 2025 harvest season with at least 12% fewer staff members than in January 2025 and at least 1,100 employees fewer than at the end of the first Trump Administration. Just as farmers and landowners enter a period projected to be extremely economically challenging, the agency that provides their federal financial support has been gutted. The FSA has struggled to administer payments to farmers under the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program of 2025 and the 2023/2025 disaster relief programs, and is navigating the extensive changes to the federal commodity payment programs that were part of the recently passed budget reconciliation process. In addition, there is a growing recognition that supplemental relief will be needed for producers impacted by tariffs, high input costs, and program cuts. The scale of such assistance, likely to be around $20-30 billion, will require significant FSA support to ensure any program is run effectively and payments reach all producers in need. At a time of extremely high demand, these staffing levels will cause distress for the agency and stakeholders.
Every State Hit With FSA Staff LossesSince two-thirds of FSA employees are county staff, the impact of the DRP and staff separations has been felt in every state across the country. Amongst the FSA federal employees, states lost an average of 17% of their FSA staff to the DRP. Two states, Alaska and Delaware, lost the only federal FSA employees in their state to the DRP. The 674 county FSA employees who left their positions to the DRP were spread across 46 states, with Texas (59 employees), Iowa (37 employees), Georgia (36 employees), and Kansas (33 employees) losing the large number of FSA county staff. The map below shows the number of FSA staff lost in each state since January 2025, including both the staff who accepted the DRP and those who otherwise separated from the agency.
Figure 3: FSA Staff Lost to DRP and Separations
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Farming Stakeholders Express Their Distress With Staff CutsRecently, The National Association of Farmer Elected Committees (NAFEC) issued a statement expressing their distress and frustration with existing low FSA staffing levels. NAFEC President Jim Zumbrink said: “NAFEC has County Committee members in every county in the nation and the word we are consistently hearing is our county office staffs are critically understaffed…As such, our staff will find it very difficult to perform the complex work of the new Farm Bill, combined with Disaster programs and ongoing programs, with the speed agriculture producers in America, both expect and desperately need.”
Leaders at NAFEC shared that their local offices will be unable to administer existing safety net programs and the forthcoming changes from budget reconciliation and a potential new farm bill. “The new farm bill is going to require millions of new base acres to be established which is going to take a lot of work. We also know that ongoing programs like the Livestock Forage Program (LFP), critical to our nation’s livestock producers, is a program that takes a lot of staff time to administer,” said Kevin Dale, a retired county executive director from a large beef-producing county in Oklahoma. His Oklahoma county office staff has recently been cut from a staff of four full time employees (including one full-time temporary employee) to just two staff members. With those numbers, he says, “Issuing payments quickly under this program will be impossible, without additional staffing.”
FSA staff are highly skilled with extensive institutional knowledge that is lost with these separations. For instance, staff who separated from the agency between January and March 2025 had an average of 18.6 years of service, according to OPM. The decades worth of invaluable experience and institutional knowledge FSA staff carry is essential to serving stakeholders effectively and efficiently. Bob Braden, a NAFEC officer and corn and soybean grower from Iowa says: “With the recent buyouts, not only are FSA offices depleted of warm bodies, but a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience also walked out the door of our offices. Replacing this experience will take a good amount of time.”
NAFEC’s recent public outcry concerning FSA staffing levels follows a July 2025 letter to farm groups highlighting that FSA staffing levels were “already at a breaking point:” “With recent buyouts and early retirements, the staffing levels in our counties has never been lower. Already at a breaking point, we are now faced with having to develop base acres on over 36 million new acres, as well as maintain all of the Title 1 programs that ensure a strong farm safety net. Frankly, we need your help if we are to be able to deliver the farm programs in the fast and efficient manner our producers have come to expect and deserve.”
FSA Staff at a Breaking PointThe steady erosion of FSA staff, combined with the recent surge in losses, has left farmers and landowners with fewer resources and slower access to critical support just at the moment they most desperately need it. Rather than addressing this crisis, the Presidential budget includes massive cuts of more than $372 million to the FSA budget for the next fiscal year and plans to close many local offices. Deputy Secretary Vaden has said there are no plans to ask for either temporary or permanent increases in FSA staff levels, despite widespread stakeholder concerns.
The proposed USDA reorganization will only further exacerbate this staffing crisis by driving even more staff out of the agency. Without a clear plan to rebuild FSA’s workforce, particularly at the county level where farmers most directly depend on assistance, USDA risks undermining the very programs that sustain farm communities in times of need.
The post USDA Staffing Crisis: Farm Service Agency Staff Losses Put Farm Safety Net at Risk appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
(Washington, D.C., September 30, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide more than $38.3 million in Congressionally mandated recovery assistance to South Carolina agricultural producers through a block grant agreement with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) to help producers recover from Hurricane Helene.
(Washington, D.C., September 30, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide more than $531 million in Congressionally mandated recovery assistance to Georgia agricultural producers through a block grant agreement with the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) to help producers recover from Hurricane Helene.
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