hard to refute anything that may hurt farmers or vulnerable communities however wasn’t LFPA always meant to be a short-term, federally funded program tied to pandemic recovery?
Hi, Rob — LFPA and several other programs that are currently subject to cuts, terminations and freezes were created under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. But there was no set termination date for the program, and participants were given the expectation that they would receive funding for two years after their start date.
In real terms, that meant the first cohort of enrollees in 2023 expected their contracts would be honored through the full 2025 growing season, and those who enrolled in 2024, expected their contracts would be renewed through the 2026 growing season.
The first disruption came in late Februrary of this year when USDA froze contracted reimbursements, which left many farmers holding the bag for major expenses they'd laid out under their contracts with USDA. That was reversed in March, but USDA also announced that the program would be terminated as of June 30.
The impact of this on the 2023 and 2024 cohorts of the program is that most of the farmers had planned for the 2025 growing season and had bought seeds and other necessities. They can't not plant them because in that case they would have no income for the year. But without the funding through LPFA for them to sell the crops at market rate for distribution to the needy, they are likely to end up with big and financially unsustainable surpluses by the end of the growing season unless anew market emerges for their products.
So, it's a mess, and small farmers, whose work always carry considerable risk, are the people who are getting hurt the most.
hard to refute anything that may hurt farmers or vulnerable communities however wasn’t LFPA always meant to be a short-term, federally funded program tied to pandemic recovery?
Hi, Rob — LFPA and several other programs that are currently subject to cuts, terminations and freezes were created under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. But there was no set termination date for the program, and participants were given the expectation that they would receive funding for two years after their start date.
In real terms, that meant the first cohort of enrollees in 2023 expected their contracts would be honored through the full 2025 growing season, and those who enrolled in 2024, expected their contracts would be renewed through the 2026 growing season.
The first disruption came in late Februrary of this year when USDA froze contracted reimbursements, which left many farmers holding the bag for major expenses they'd laid out under their contracts with USDA. That was reversed in March, but USDA also announced that the program would be terminated as of June 30.
The impact of this on the 2023 and 2024 cohorts of the program is that most of the farmers had planned for the 2025 growing season and had bought seeds and other necessities. They can't not plant them because in that case they would have no income for the year. But without the funding through LPFA for them to sell the crops at market rate for distribution to the needy, they are likely to end up with big and financially unsustainable surpluses by the end of the growing season unless anew market emerges for their products.
So, it's a mess, and small farmers, whose work always carry considerable risk, are the people who are getting hurt the most.