As uncertainty swirls around Washington regarding the release of allocated federal funds, farmers throughout the Valley are beginning to feel the freeze.

When President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, he made a promise to cut down on wasteful government spending. In the weeks that followed, he issued an order halting government spending until every dollar allocated can be reviewed to ensure it meets the administration’s priorities.

A federal judge on Friday heard arguments on a request to further block the Trump administration from freezing trillions of dollars of grants and loans. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island had already approved a temporary restraining order on the funding freeze, however, federal money remained tied up even after his Jan. 31 order.

Now farmers across the country are in limbo, waiting to hear if grants awarded to them for much-needed equipment and various soil health, expansion and modernization projects will actually come through.

“We had a contract all signed and agreed on over the winter and are now being informed that agreement is under question,” said Ryan Voiland, owner of Red Fire Farm, which has property in Granby and Montague. “We already spent money we don’t have.”

Voiland said Red Fire Farm had a $23,641 contract with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), for a soil health improvement project. When he was awarded the contract, he purchased compost and other materials needed to cover a 13-acre field, expecting to be reimbursed later.

“It’s funds we need to cover payroll and supply,” Voiland said. “We don’t really have any wiggle room. I don’t know how we’re going to figure this out.”

Red Fire Farm also had a contract with another USDA program, the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). Voiland said he had been awarded $125,764 to build a solar canopy at the Granby location, in the spot where the farm store and barn that burned down last February was located. These funds have been frozen for review, with no word on when or if they will be released.

He had planned to pair the federal grants with grants from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), but with the funding freeze, Voiland may not get the funds needed to complete the project before MDAR’s deadline.

“It’s supposed to be built and done by June, so now I’m at risk of losing the MDAR grant,” he said.

Voiland said the federal government needs to keep its promises and issue the funds it awarded.

“The government is obligated to honor those contracts, in my opinion,” Voiland said.

‘Nobody really knows anything’

Jono Neiger, owner of Big River Chestnuts in Sunderland, was expecting approximately $275,000 in federal grants for various soil health improvement projects and the expansion and modernization of his fleet of equipment. Now he is unsure if he will ever see the funding that was obligated to him and if those projects will ever be completed.

“Everybody just has to wait and see,” Neiger said. “Nobody really knows anything.”

In addition to Big River Chestnuts, Neiger works with Regenerative Design, a landscape architecture firm based in Greenfield. He said Regenerative Design works on a lot of habitat restoration projects funded by federal grants and these have been put on pause, too.

“A lot of the work we do is shut down right now,” he said.

Foxtrot Farm in Ashfield learned this week that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had canceled contracts totaling $35,000. Owner Abby Ferla said she, like many farmers, budgets to plan for the season ahead. She had planned on using grant funding and federal reimbursements for supplies and climate-sustainable farming infrastructure, but now has had “the rug pulled from underneath her.”

She added that she does not know a single farm across the region that does not benefit from some sort of federal funding. These dollars are an essential part of maintaining a reliable food system and cutting them off will be devastating, she said.

“In the last 13 years I’ve been farming, we’ve never had an administration attack farmers like this,” Ferla said.

Shifting to state support

Since the Trump administration took office, 78 USDA contracts, equaling $132 million, have been canceled. In a statement, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said these contracts included newspaper subscriptions; a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) specialist; and numerous trainings and workshops. In the coming weeks, more contracts will be reviewed to prevent “wasteful spending.”

At least $7 million of those funds were set to come to Massachusetts farms, according to Claire Morenon with the South Deerfield-based nonprofit Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA).

“At CISA we have been working for decades on supporting a vision of helping local farms and ensuring people have access to healthy, locally grown food,” Morenon said. “What we’re seeing happen at the federal level is a threat to those values a lot of us share.”

With the uncertainty revolving around federal funding, farmers say they will need to rely more heavily on state agencies for support.

“For the next few years we’re going to have to rely on our state and local communities,” Nieger said. “We’re lucky; we’re pretty well supported here.”

Nieger said in addition to the federal grants to Big River Chestnuts, he had been awarded a few state grants that he has been assured will come through. But Voiland and Ferla fear that many state agencies rely on funds trickling down from the federal budget, and once those dollars are cut off, state support will end.

“I’m concerned with this precedent that the government is canceling contracts that we won’t see any funding this year,” Ferla said. “We’re going to just hope and pray things work out.”

Morenon added that local non-profits and state agencies want to support farms the best they can, but they do not have nearly as big of a budget as the federal government.

“That loss really can’t be bridged by states or nonprofits,” she said.

Legislators agree the freeze is hurting farms across the region, and say they will do everything they can to get the allocated funds issued as promised.

“The harms of the Trump administration’s unconstitutional cutoff of federal grant and assistance programs are being felt nationwide, and hitting home in western Massachusetts and across the commonwealth,” U.S. Sen. Ed Markey said in a statement. “Dollars that American families and workers were awarded and counting on are being illegally seized, leaving small businesses, farmers and community partners in the lurch. I’ve heard from constituents on how this illegal rescinding of obligated funds are devastating their small and family-run farms and their land stewardship, and who are now in financial debt after signing agreements with USDA just to have the chaos of the Trump administration defy contract laws and deny their small businesses their awarded dollars.”

He advised any constituent who has been impacted by the funding freeze to contact his office.

“As the ranking member on the U.S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, I am fighting to ensure federal dollars flow as they were intended to the American people,” Markey continued. “Our Constitution made clear that Congress has the power of the purse and I pledge to keep fighting to not allow Trump and Republicans to throw families into financial instability, just to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.”

At the state level, Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, said she has been in discussions with the governor, lieutenant governor, MDAR, other local legislators and their federal counterparts, and all agree they need to do what they can to aid farms and other small businesses and organizations depending on federal dollars. Similar to actions taken during natural disasters, the legislators will be looking to see how they can help bridge the gap, but the state budget does not have as many available dollars as the federal budget.

“There’s a universal understanding that the state needs to lean in,” Comerford said. “But the true reality is the state does not have enough money to cover what’s lost from the federal government.”

She added that the funding freeze is impacting more than just farming grants. From mass layoffs of federal agencies that work with farmers, to loans and grant opportunities for other small businesses and organizations, the full impact of the funding freeze and the decisions being made in the capital has yet to be determined, and will only grow bigger.

“These are unprecedented times. The threat is real and escalating,” Comerford said. “To truly understand the hardship people are facing, we need to understand the direct and indirect impacts.”

Comerford said she wants to hear from farms and other local businesses. Anyone impacted by the funding freeze is encouraged to contact their legislators to share what they are experiencing and what support they need.

“We will fight for our farmers,” Comerford said. “We’re here and farms are a major priority.”

Neiger said he does not expect answers to come anytime soon and he believes the uncertainty over whether his grant funding will be distributed will continue.

“I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Neiger said. “This is the beginning of a whole lot of chaos.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.