Katelyn Hemmer, Coverage & Applications Intern
By Katelyn Hemmer, OFRF Coverage & Applications Intern, Winter 2025-26
Regardless of messaging round reinvigorated help for small farms, USDA’s coverage selections during the last yr have revealed a widespread erosion of sources for small farmers. Small farms have been the cornerstone of neighborhood for hundreds of years, and it’s no completely different at the moment. Making up 85% of all farms within the U.S., small household farms hold cash within the native economic system, preserve land for the subsequent technology, and supply safety within the face of worldwide provide chain points. Though the USDA’s monetary help programming has by and enormous been utilized by bigger and bigger operations, the previous yr has resulted in a historic degree of staffing cuts, resulting in fewer sources for small and mid-size farmers and total a widespread sense of uncertainty.
Key modifications to agriculture coverage & applications in 2025 affecting farmers in 2026:
- The USDA misplaced nearly 1 in 4 NRCS workers in 2025, the overwhelming majority of whom labored in area workplaces that present direct technical help and grant help to farmers.
- The USDA terminated the Native Meals for Colleges Cooperative Settlement Program, the Native Meals Buy Help Cooperative Settlement Program, and the Regional Meals Enterprise Facilities program, ensuing within the lack of markets and help for small farmers.
- Applications that stay in place, such because the Patrick Leahy Farm to Faculty Grant Program, have raised grant flooring, making it more durable for smaller entities and tasks to get funding.
- Funding freezes, canceled applications, shutdowns, and market uncertainty have eroded farmers’ belief within the USDA and the federal authorities.
NRCS Program Cuts & What It Means for Farmers
Over the previous yr of program cuts and cancellations, the Pure Assets Conservation Service (NRCS) was hit onerous. NRCS supplies many sorts of help to farmers together with technical help, engineering, and conservation plans. NRCS price share applications give farmers the chance to strive extra sustainable strategies of manufacturing with out risking their enterprise on the preliminary infrastructure funding. NRCS applications have been backed up for years. Funding is aggressive, with 43-44% of Environmental High quality Incentives Program (EQIP) candidates and 53-55% of Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) candidates awarded contracts. Farmers who safe price share contracts develop a selected design plan primarily based on technicians’ evaluation of the land, they usually should observe that plan precisely to obtain reimbursement. A lot of the work at area workplaces includes web site visits to develop these plans, reply farmers’ questions, and ensure web site necessities. Even earlier than this yr’s cuts, NRCS workers have been stretched skinny.
The NRCS misplaced nearly one in 4 of their workers between January and September of 2025. Many workplaces have been decreased to at least one or two workers or closed altogether. In rural areas, the closure or extreme discount in workers of an NRCS workplace implies that an already prolonged, bureaucratic course of has slowed to a snail’s tempo. Of the hundreds of workers who have been fired or took deferred resignation, solely 30 have been situated in D.C.–– the remaining have been from area workplaces across the nation. Which means the cuts didn’t “optimize the USDA workforce and cease wasteful spending,” they terminated the contracts of people that offered direct help to farmers within the type of web site visits, grant help, and system design. Particular agricultural expertise takes years to construct and is usually location-based. For instance, a conservation plan for a farm in New Mexico won’t work for one in New York because of variations of their agroecological areas. The cuts to NRCS have created problem and uncertainty for farmers with present contracts, hindered the flexibility of workplaces to start new tasks, positioned the duties of whole workplaces onto one or two workers, and restricted the flexibility of farmers to farm how they select to. The misplaced time and expertise ensuing from these cuts will impression the efficacy of the company and farmers’ future conservation efforts.
In December, USDA secretary Brooke Rollins introduced a $700 million funding in regenerative agriculture, administered by way of NRCS. With out a new Farm Invoice and the creation of recent applications, this cash goes towards EQIP and CSP contracts, with no cash reserved and no plan for restaffing NRCS area workplaces throughout the nation. With cuts to different funding sources, each applications are nonetheless taking a look at a internet lower in funding in response to evaluation by MAD Agriculture: EQIP is now funded at a complete of $2.655 billion for FY2026, a rise of $605 million over 2018 Farm Invoice baselines, however a lower of $2.845 billion relative to the mixed quantity beforehand allotted by way of IRA and the 2018 Farm Invoice. CSP is now funded at a complete of $1.3 billion for FY2026, a rise of $300 million over 2018 Farm Invoice baselines, however a lower of $2.2 billion relative to the mixed quantity beforehand allotted by way of IRA and the 2018 Farm Invoice.
Reductions in Funding for Agriculture Applications and Grants Hurts Small Farmers
In March, the USDA lower $1 billion in taxpayer {dollars} that states may use to purchase native produce for establishments equivalent to faculties, childcare facilities, and meals banks. The Native Meals for Colleges Cooperative Settlement Program and the Native Meals Buy Help Cooperative Settlement Program have been each terminated, with present contracts being given solely 60 days discover. Different applications additionally noticed cuts–– the Patrick Leahy Farm to Faculty Grant Program was lower by $10 million, greater than half its complete awarded grants in 2024. With out federal funding, faculties and meals banks don’t have the additional funds to pay for native, sustainable meals, and small farmers can’t afford to present away their meals without cost.
In July, the USDA dealt one other blow to small farmers by eliminating this system that runs the nation’s Regional Meals Enterprise Facilities. These facilities have been created with the particular intention of serving to small farmers and strengthening the native provide chain within the face of accelerating consolidation within the trade. Whereas the facilities have been solely created in 2023, many had already begun funding grants for tasks like increasing industrial kitchens and constructing freezers that permit small farmers to develop their companies. The Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Meals Enterprise Heart, simply one in all twelve throughout the nation, reported that their applications helped set up 30 new firms, and elevated gross sales at 50 farms and companies that labored with the middle. Earlier than termination, this system had a finances of $360 million–– a comparatively small share of the USDA annual finances, however vastly impactful to the agricultural communities they served, with 287 companies throughout the nation reporting elevated income in only one yr of operation. It’s tough to see the termination of those facilities as something greater than acknowledged help for the biggest gamers in industrial agriculture.
In September, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins introduced an $18 million funding within the Patrick Leahy Farm to Faculty Grant Program, the biggest single-year funding in this system. Nevertheless, in addition to the upset and uncertainty that the sudden termination of grants earlier within the yr precipitated, the USDA has set a grant flooring of $100,000 for particular person partnerships. Which means there might be fewer tasks and they are going to be awarded to bigger farms. In earlier years, small farms and small faculties benefited from this system, with grants as small as $23,000 awarded to rural faculties to make sure entry to wholesome meals and create agricultural teaching programs. The company additionally eradicated efforts to make sure that the grants have been distributed equitably to underserved communities, low-income college students, small farms, and rural college districts. With the brand new restrictions, small farms have misplaced one other market.
How You Can Take Motion to Help Small Farmers
Small farmers are struggling to maintain their doorways open. The variety of farms declined 8% between 2017 and 2024 with the overwhelming majority of closed farms having gross sales underneath $50,000. With margins so small, the funding freeze in early 2025 and the next termination of many grants and applications dealt an enormous blow to small farms. Moreover, the pause in SNAP funding attributable to the federal government shutdown in late 2025 and the brand new restrictions on this system lower into small farmers’ gross sales. That is particularly impactful in states which have SNAP incentive fashions that promote wholesome consuming, like Colorado’s “Double Up Meals Bucks” or Georgia’s “Recent For Much less”. The coverage modifications and political occasions over the previous yr have had a measurable impact on farmer revenue and future prospects.
Our meals system has at all times been formed by federal and state coverage. There’s widespread widespread help for insurance policies that will take away synthetic dyes or banning dangerous pesticides from each main political events. Officers usually suggest laws that will promote agricultural analysis, restrict cash going to the most important gamers, and different applications or coverage modifications that will make it simpler to stay as a small farmer in America. Coverage modifications to present authorities applications, equivalent to Farm to Faculty grants, may make it simpler for small farmers to safe contracts. Totally staffed and totally funded NRCS workplaces would permit extra farmers to afford tasks that defend their land. Whether or not you’re a farmer, a land proprietor, or simply somebody who consumes meals, you’ve got a stake on this difficulty and the flexibility to become involved. Listed here are a few sources that can assist you get began:
