Progress report for ONE24-465
Project Information
This project seeks to characterize the state of climate disaster
relief programs for farmers in New England, support navigation of
existing programs and provide actionable recommendations for
programs.
Objective 1. Convene an advisory group to advise on
approach, hone in on key issues, and support outreach to farmers.
Objective 2. Conduct a thorough review of existing program
information and synthesize into a summary guide for farmers
Objective 3. Conduct key informant interviews and a listening
tour of conversations with key stakeholders to understand the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and gaps in current climate
disaster relief programming at the state scale in New England.
Objective 4. Analyze notes from interviews, meetings and
focus groups and summarize key themes and recommendations.
Synthesize and summarize research using qualitative research
thematic analysis methods.
Objective 5. Convene key stakeholders invested in sustaining farm
viability in the face of climate change impacts and engage them
in co-creating strategies to improve program design and
communication with farmers.
Objective 6. Create outreach materials that communicate key
results and disseminate to farmers and other stakeholders.
Extreme weather has had significant impacts on farmers in New England in recent years and the frequency and severity of climate shock events is only expected to increase (Wolfe et al. 2018). In response to these weather pattern changes, farmers adapt as best they can, and new programs to support climate adaptation planning have emerged. Most farmers in New England have already adopted soil health strategies in response to increased drought and heavy precipitation (White et al 2018). However, these on-farm adaptation strategies are insufficient to withstand the impacts of severe and extreme weather. A 2023 survey reported that 58% of producers expected to have negative cash flow the following year due to severe weather impacts (Watson 2023).
The majority of New England farmers understand their vulnerability to extreme weather. But only 37% report having the knowledge or technical skills to adapt, and only 18% have financial capacity to deal with weather related threats (White et al. 2018). Financial safety nets are crucial to sustaining farms through the impacts of extreme weather, and existing federal programs are severely underutilized in NE. For example, only 9% of fruit and vegetable producers in New England utilize crop insurance as a risk management strategy for precipitation extremes (White et al., 2018) and only 30% of Vermont producers have any kind of crop or livestock insurance (Watson 2023). When a weather-related catastrophe hits the region and impacts producers, many are dependent on their state governors requesting disaster assistance from the USDA Secretary or from private fundraising efforts often launched by non-profits or local communities through Go Fund Me accounts. In response, during the 2023 growing season, three of the six state governments created climate disaster relief funds to help cover some of farmers lost incomes.
The emergence of new state disaster relief programs across New England to meet this need offers farmers both hope and confusion. Farmers often report not knowing which programs they are eligible for, which they should apply to or do not know of, and how competitive programs are. Additionally, the pace and financial scale of new programs is far behind the immediate and recurring cashflow needs of farmers to meet payroll and pay bills. Program leaders are seeking to improve the efficiency and efficacy of their programs and take a more proactive approach to disaster relief, rather than scrambling after each event.
This is a unique moment of opportunity to enhance learning across disaster relief programs in New England to learn what is working well, needs to improve and how to evolve. Engaging farmers, advisors and program staff in co-learning and co-creating a path forward will advance agricultural sustainability, especially the economic viability of farms, but also farmers’ quality of life, their capacity to support employees, their capacity to invest in conservation and proactively address environmental risks. Charting a path forward involves assessing and synthesizing the regional state of farm disaster relief programs to engage key stakeholders, especially farmers and their trusted advisors, in co-learning through facilitated conversations.
Cooperators
Research
Objective 1: Convene an advisory group:
• Recommended members of the advisory group have been identified. We will convene a meeting with them this winter.
Objective 2: Conduct a thorough review of existing program information and synthesize into a summary guide for farmers.
• AFT staff have drafted a preliminary version of the review of existing programs. It is currently being edited by other team members.
• The preliminary version includes a summary of programs available in each New England state, if any. It also includes an overview of federal programs that are available to farmers throughout the region. As the review so far demonstrates, none of the six states in the region have an ongoing funding mechanism specifically for disaster relief in the agricultural sector. There are, however, grant programs designed to help improve overall resiliency, such as the CT Farmland Restoration, Climate Resiliency & Preparedness Grant (RRP) through the Department of Agriculture (DoAg). This grant program addresses pre-disaster “preparedness.” Maine has created a grant relief program specific to drought relief (Famer Drought Relief Grant Program) through the Dept. Of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF). Most states have used ad-hoc programs to provide relief from specific disasters (i.e. from 2022 and 2023 weather events).
• The overview of federal programs provides initial insight into the ongoing funding mechanisms available. More detail will be provided on the federal programs in upcoming versions of the report.
Objective 3: Conduct key informant interviews and a listening tour of conversations with key stakeholders to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and gaps in current climate disaster relief programming at the state scale in New England.
• Significant staff time has been dedicated to attending and convening conversations across the region about climate disaster relief. AFT staff attending relevant events are asked to attend sessions or host conversations where discussion will focus on climate disaster relief. AFT staff are asked to report on the following information: session(s) relevant to climate disaster relief (i.e. crop insurance; flood recovery); existing programs mentioned; major needs or opportunities; barriers to meeting stated needs; new ideas; key people and organizations. This listening tour has included four events to date: Vermont Farm to Plate, Connecticut Resource Conservation and Development Disaster Relief Meeting, Massachusetts Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, and the New England Vegetable and Fruit Growers Conference, with a total of 110 attendees across these four events. AFT staff will attend at least six additional events before July of this year to complete the listening tour.
• Interview questions have been drafted and are being finalized by the project collaborators.
Staff from American Farmland Trust (AFT) have attended four events in New England to either listen for climate-disaster relief related conversation at pre-planned events or host their own events in order to solicit perspectives on climate disaster relief from farmers, service providers, and other advocates attending events. Three of the events have been state-focused with one in Connecticut, one in Massachusetts and one in Vermont. The fourth event was at a New England-wide conference. Three sessions have been facilitated by AFT staff (in Vermont, Massachusetts, and at the New England Conference) and one (Connecticut) was an event put on by the state and attended by AFT staff.
Climate disasters did come up during all four of the conversations, as did climate disaster relief, although the amount of time spent discussing climate disaster relief specifically varied between events. The event in Connecticut, which was put on by the state Resource Conservation & Development office, was focused on the eventual creation of a climate disaster relief program, while the other events had a climate change focus, but were not explicitly focused on climate disaster relief.
We have identified some early themes emerging from these first four conversations, including a) the inadequacy of traditional crop insurance; b) perceptions of difficulty surrounding access to disaster relief programs; c) lack of clarity regarding who should administer this type of program; and d) an emphasis on speed of response as a critical factor in climate disaster relief program design.
At two of the four events, producers discussed issues with traditional crop insurance. There was also a strong emphasis on the fact that many smaller vegetable farms currently operate without crop insurance. Participants shared the concern that even though programs like the USDA Risk Management Agency’s “Whole Farm Revenue Protection Program” and “Microfarm” Program exist, many producers do not know about these programs or engage with them. One farmer shared that in Connecticut the payout for their crop insurance wasn’t worth the time they spent filling out paperwork. They lost a crop of onions and got $60. The farmer shared that there must be something wrong with the way that insurance programs are estimating the price point for specialty crops, and also that the difficulty in filling out the paperwork had to do with being a diversified vegetable farm. They had to enter every crop and variety and account for each succession planning, which “made it look like I had planted 10 acres on 5 acres,” something that was difficult for the insurers to understand.
At the event in Connecticut which was specifically hosted to discuss the creation of a climate disaster relief program, there was an emphasis on the perception that it is difficult for farmers (especially smaller scale farmers) to access climate disaster relief programs. One of the barriers to access identified in this meeting was the challenge of accurate and timely data collection regarding crop, land, and livestock value and losses. Meeting attendees expressed that there are currently too many places to hold and collect loss data and that they would prefer a singular place to report loss.
All conversations featured a lack of clarity regarding who should administer state-based climate disaster relief programs. There was support for both a government program and a program administered by a non-profit with a strong track record of administering funds. Additionally, many emphasized that farmers need to be a part of the decision making body that will ultimately administer the funds.
Finally, many conversations featured discussion of speed of funding allocation after a climate disaster event. This tied in to the conversation about administration of the program with some suggesting that a program run by a non-governmental organization could get funds to farmers more efficiently. At the New England conference event, there was discussion about the use of social media private funding campaigns to fill in the immediate need for funding directly after a disaster. Participants were quick to point out that while this has worked for some farms, it is neither sustainable nor equitable, and therefore it is important that an official program fill this gap instead of individual fundraising efforts.
Education & Outreach Activities and Participation Summary
Participation Summary:
Using a multi-tier approach to outreach, our external communications plan for dissemination of our findings will rely heavily on our networks, list-servs and presence at farmer events. We will share outputs and conduct outreach through our extensive networks, as well as list-servs and at farmer events. Specifically, we will:
- Draft a comprehensive report of our findings that will live on the AFT Farmland Information Center webpage. This will be partnered with a high level one pager that farmers can skim for an overview of findings.
- We will also make a short resource guide of current disaster relief programs available to producers that will live on our New England webpage and the CT Working Lands Alliance webpage. We will also ask our advisory board members to share the findings on their websites and social media pages.
- We will disseminate the guide and key findings at the many farmer-oriented conferences in New England that we attend and table and present at. We have a presence at most. AFT NE also hosts dozens of its own farmer gatherings.
- All advisory members will be asked to share resources with their networks as well.
- In partnership with our national climate and policy teams, we will host a webinar that will include a panel discussion with some of our advisory board members and farmer partners, to share the findings with partners and farmers across the region.
- Design of outreach materials cards with QR codes that can be shared at 10+ various regional conferences (NE Fruit and Vegetable, Maine Ag. Trade Show, NH Food System Alliance, MA Food System Collaborative and through county farm bureau meetings, NOFA MA, VVBGA, MOFGA, NOFA CT, VT Farm to Plate, NE Organic Dairy Conference, CT Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, CT Ag. Day at the Capitol, RI Farm Bureau Association and R Young Farmers, etc.), farmer to farmer trainings, service provider events, and for our technical service providers to distribute as needed. (order 1000 postcards in both English and Spanish from VISTA prints for $200)
- Lastly, we will do an internal training for our AFT New England Climate and Agriculture Team to share the findings at conferences (during FY 2024, AFT’s Climate and Ag. Team is anticipated to present/attend over 17 of conferences). We will apply to present the findings with other AFT research at many of the conferences listed above throughout the region.
AFT staff have planned and facilitate the following sessions to date:
- “What makes farms Climate Resilient? Building adaptive capacity” session at the Vermont Farm to Plate Annual Gathering. 11/20/2024
- “There is No More Normal; a farmer-to-farmer climate conversation" session at the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Meeting. 12/5/24
- “Climate Change Farmer-to-Farmer" session at the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference. 12/17/2024