"A consortium of Black farmers in the north-east take financial hits as harsh USDA cuts threaten their operations"
"For the last several weeks, Jocelyn Germany has been asking herself “is it safe for us to exist” as Black farmers?, since US Department of Agriculture cuts have put her work in jeopardy.
Germany is the farmer advocate of Farm School NYC (FSNYC), an urban agriculture education center focused on food sovereignty and social, economic and racial justice. Around 85% of Farm School NYC’s funding comes from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The center was in the process of launching a New York City-wide pilot initiative focused on food justice, crop management and urban farming advocacy. But National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) $300,000 community food projects grant that would have funded it was terminated, effectively immediately. Forced to scramble, FSNYC scaled down the programming and adopted a sliding scale for tuition.
The cuts affected other plans, including public courses on food stewardship. Funding that would have allowed the center to distribute mini grants and grow community capacity has also been paused. FSNYC recently discussed cutting some of its own employee benefits to free up resources for the now impacted programming. “Our main goal is to keep Farm School in operation,” Germany said."
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