HUNDREDS GATHERED outside Hadley Town Hall Sunday protesting a deluge of changes to the USDA by the Trump administration, including frozen grant money, program cuts, staff layoffs, and the slated closure of Massachusetts’ Natural Resources Conservation Service office.
Facing a crowd of supportive community members, local and regional growers, and a line of six tractors, concerned farmers and state and federal elected officials outlined the possible consequences of losing these funds and services.
“Our farm estimates over $200,000 in lost revenue this year due to these funding cuts,” said Harrison Bardwell, a who owns Bardwell Farm in Hatfield, referring to recently cut programs like Local Food for Schools (LFS) Cooperative Agreement Program and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA), both of which provide the state with funds so schools and food banks can buy food from farms like Bardwell’s. That represents 20-30% of the farm’s expected revenue for 2025.
“We have bills to pay, we have loans, and we have employees to support. I’m troubled by the sudden change,” he said.
Between the cuts to the LFS and LFPA programs, Massachusetts would lose more than $18 million in subsidies that go directly to farmers for providing fresh food to schools, if the cuts stand. Ashley Randle, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in early March to urge the funding be reinstated. The uncertainty around federal funding, Randle noted, made it particularly difficult for farmers to plan their crops at a critical time during the spring season.
In early March, the Department of Government Efficiency’s website listed the Natural Resources Conservation Service for Massachusetts in Amherst, a federally run office, as one of dozens whose leases will be terminated, according to several news sources. Representatives for the agency, which works with farmers and other landowners across the state to protect natural resources like soil and water, referred CommonWealth Beacon to their national press department, which did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Annie Diemond from Diemand Farm, a third generation farm in Wendell, described the precarious position that frozen Rural Energy for America Program funding has put her business in. Her farm secured $139,000 in REAP grant money to help pay down a $250,000 loan for rooftop solar. Now their first loan payment is due, and she can’t access the funds.
“We just don’t have that kind of money sitting around,” she said. “I wish people would understand the reality that farmers face.”
US Rep. Jim McGovern expressed outrage on behalf of the farmers. “They are launching a full assault on the people who feed this country,” he said.
“You picked the wrong group of people to mess with,” he said in a complaint to Rollins, receiving cheers from the crowd.
The USDA did not respond to requests for comment by press time. But in early February Rollins said she supported DOGE’s cuts. “I welcome DOGE’s efforts at USDA because we know that its work makes us better, stronger, faster, and more efficient. I will expect full access and transparency to DOGE in the days and weeks to come,” she said.
Protest-goers held signs with messages including “Cut Hay, Not USDA,” “Don’t Bite the Hands that Feed Us” and “Sequester Carbon Not Government.” A table was set out where attendees wrote letters directly to Rollins.
Kerry Taylor of Brookfield Farm in Amherst, one of the rally’s organizers, said, “This is a manufactured problem that Secretary Rollins needs to fix.” She called on Rollins to “stick to the agreements that they made with farmers … and pay the farmers what they promised.”
Some farmers, like Suna Turgay of Flowerwork Farm in Northampton, were particularly worried about the climate impacts that could result from USDA cuts, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation.
“I was expecting four years of Climate-Smart agriculture grants. These grants help farmers adapt to extreme weather, to become more resilient farms,” she said. “These practices improve soil health, increase productivity, conserve natural resources, improve food security and reduce the temperature of our planet.”
Beth Girshman, a resident of Conway, was one of many who showed up to support farmers and the regional food system that they make possible.
“I’m here because I think farming is essential to the local economy and food security. It makes us one of the best places to live in the country.”
Jesse Lederman, regional director for Sen. Ed Markey’s office, said his office has launched formal inquiries with the USDA on the status of “that were legally appropriated and committed to our farmers.”
“I will not rest until these dollars are out of Elon Musk hands and invested in Massachusetts farms where they belong,” he said. “If they continue to violate the law, we will see them in court.”
The protest closed out with country music blasting from one of the tractors.