SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — The Beginner Farmer Program had just entered the second year of a five-year contract through the USDA American Rescue Plan when federal action from the Trump administration proposed cuts that froze its funding without notice. The program is a farmer–to–farmer cohort designed to help young farmers in the Catskills and Hudson Valley region succeed through training, one-to-one mentoring, farm visits and networking.

The federal funding cuts left funding frozen, forcing the program’s operator, Cornell Cooperative Extension Sullivan County (CCESC), to stop operations, leaving the current group of 11 mentee farmers and 11 mentor farmers with no assistance.

In total, the frozen funds, which also included a USDA Local Foods Promotion Grant (a direct-to-consumer and wholesale marketing program to promote buying farm-local), will result in CCESC’s inability to distribute an intended $1.5 million to the region’s farms and farmers. CCESC has also not been reimbursed for $138,000 that was already paid to farmers for program services, part of the halted funds.

Melinda Meddaugh, CCESC Ag & Food Systems senior issue leader, told the River Reporter that the contracts have not been canceled, but after February 1, “they’re just not getting money,” and with no way to know if they’re going to get reimbursed, Meddaugh said they can’t “risk it.”

These grants are included in the broad array of federal funding put on pause after President Donald Trump issued an array of executive orders within the first few weeks of his administration. Many of the cuts are being challenged in court, but some funding has remained frozen.

“This funding was going to help implement all these things to make their farm successful, and it’s just not happening,” Meddaugh says.

Reverberations in the community

Rob Sanders from Himalayan Farms in Mamakating, a mentee in the halted beginner-farmer cohort, said he already went out and got purchase orders. “The freeze has been very impactful in a negative way.” 

“Now we’re not sure if we will be able to fill those orders,” he said.

To account for the loss in funding, Meddaugh said in addition to pausing the beginner farmer program, CCESC will have two fewer full-time positions filled, is forgoing the hiring of a seasonal employee as the organization normally would, and cut the number of mobile farmers market locations CCESC currently offers—part of the Sullivan Fresh initiative designed to overcome food insecurity within Sullivan County communities. 

“We’re just pulling back,” she said. “That’s how we’re trying to make up and recoup that money.”

Meddaugh said she’s been working more hours than usual to readjust the budget already planned over the winter.

“It’s difficult. These are our contractual obligations. This is what the community wants from us, you know. So it’s just like reassessing all that and how that will work,” she said. 

ALL Family Farm, a Veteran and family-owned farm that served as a mentee in the affected cohort, said the program provided beginner farms with the economic assistance needed to get started. “It is my sincere hope that the freeze on funding will be lifted so that this essential assistance can continue to help grow our agricultural sector,” said ALL Family Farm.

The beginner farmer program wasn’t just a grant. “It really further developed the farming community for the next generation in this county,” Meddaugh said. 

She explained, “Farming is traditionally for an aging population. So not only was this creating jobs for the county, but because these are new farms, they’re all new jobs. It was helping to keep land in production, and then helping with replacing the aging farming population, which is an issue across the country,” she said. 

The average age of a farmer in New York State was up by almost a year between 2017 and 2024, according to the Agriculture Census, rising from 55.8 to 56.7. 

The now defunct program was already successful, according to participants. The River Reporter reported on the first cohort in March 2024. Brett Budde of Majestic Farms in Mountaindale spoke then as a mentor for the program, saying, “We are building a farming community.” 

Budde added that success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. “It requires government input, and these programs are important to the success of our county farmers.” Read more here. 

Both Ryan Mitro, owner of Fare View Gardens in Fallsburg, and Manon Frappier and Ian Miner, owners of Painter’s Hill Farm in Mountaindale, who were mentees in the first cohort, told the River Reporter in 2024 that the program’s mentorship allowed knowledge-sharing that not only saved time and prevented mistakes, but saved them money.

Jack Whettam, a program mentor of Hidden Acre Farm, said, “It’s an incredibly sad state of affairs when these same small-scale farmers and producers are having contracts and promises reneged on.” 

“[They’re] left wondering and planning how they will navigate these uncertain times,” he said.

Another program mentor, Eugene Thalmann of Sprouting Dreams Farm, said he’s “deeply concerned” about the freeze. The funding has been an “invaluable supplement to our operations” and “enabled us to invest in new equipment and explore more efficient production methods,” he said.

Meddaugh says CCESC is currently working to find other funding sources to “compensate and replace” what’s been lost.

Cornell Cooperative Extension Sullivan County is launching a fundraising campaign for the Sullivan Fresh program, with different community events like cooking classes by local chefs, and other events aimed at community support, which will be hosted at the Cochecton Fire Station restaurant. See more in a sidebar above.

Listen to  this article at: https://wjffradio.org/federal-funding-freeze-threatens-sullivan-countys-new-generation-of-farmers/

Editor's note: Verbiage has been added to make it clear certain funding is frozen due to proposed federal cuts.