As the warm air of a spring day milled across the acres of pasture along the long dirt road leading through Old Crow Ranch in Durham, Steve Sinisi and his wife, Seren, settled onto the porch of their farm stand. Sitting just inches apart, they shared laughs and voiced anxieties about their decision to become farmers in rural Maine and spoke of failures and successes. 

One big concern loomed large: the possibility that they may not receive money owed to them by the federal government, which they were counting on when planning for the season ahead.  

Their farm, which produces pasture-raised beef, pork and poultry, is one of only a handful of working farms remaining in town. The couple launched the farm in 2008, and worked with the Royal River Conservation Trust to designate it as a “forever farm,” so the land will always be used for agriculture, even if it is turned over to new owners.

Seren, who grew up in Union, said she’s used to the feeling of just barely scraping by. She had hoped farming would bring a sense of security, but with funding freezes and uncertainty under the Trump administration’s government efficiency efforts, these warm spring days serve as a reminder of the upcoming projects they have committed to for the coming season, and raise a question of whether they can still meet them.

“I don’t know a farmer that’s gonna go plant… just not knowing,” Steve Sinisi said. “That’s not how we work. Our margins don’t work that way… We don’t just (decide) oh, I’m going to go buy 180 pigs just for fun.”

Last year, their farm was awarded a $34,000 grant through the Rural Energy for America Program, which they planned to use to install a solar array. But the Trump administration paused the funding earlier this year, before announcing it would be released, leaving the Sinisis to cover the costs of the project at a higher interest rate than the initial agreement would have required, which they said will be a challenge.

“We will make it work, because we are committed to farming,” Seren Sinisi said. “But it won’t be pretty.”

The Rural Energy for America Program is just one of several U.S. Department of Agriculture initiatives that have been paused or cancelled by the Trump administration as it aims to slash what it sees as wasteful bureaucracy and overhead. 

Cuts and funding freezes

The department has cut the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy produce from local farmers.

And it cancelled the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which was set to give Maine projects $3 million for efforts that would help farms build resilient practices as the climate changes. 

The administration argues the climate-smart program did not give enough funding directly to farmers, and is planning to overhaul the program into something it’s calling Advancing Markets for Producers, which will require that 65 percent of federal funds go directly to farmers. 

“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins in a press release.

In addition to these cuts, more than $12 million in Maine contracts that were approved by the Natural Resources Conservation Service are in limbo, according to Sarah Alexander, the executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.

“Prior to this administration, the USDA has long been viewed as a partner in helping support farm viability, access to markets, creation of markets, and the trust has really been broken,” Alexander said. “Farmers really aren’t sure if they can trust these projects and these programs moving forward, and that’s really devastating.”

In mid-April, dozens of farmers and supporters gathered at the statehouse in Augusta to voice their frustration, emphasizing the tight margins most farms operate on and the important role government contracts can play. 

Training farmers

Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment in Freeport was one of the organizations receiving funds through the now-cancelled Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which it used to help farmers in 22 states learn about conservation resources and develop resilient practices. 

The farm is in the third year of a five-year, $35 million agreement and has received $7 million to date. It expects to receive some additional funds for costs incurred through mid-April, but no later. 

The center’s executive director Dave Herring said they have furloughed nine staff this month in light of the cuts, and in total will lose nearly a quarter of their staff.

“Every type of farming operation, big and small … they’re being impacted,” Herring said. “This is a huge lost opportunity for farmers across the country.”

Herring said that federal grants account for nearly two-thirds of the center’s budget.

“Things like training farmers, performing research, providing technical assistance to farmers, these are at the core of our programs and the things that we do and certainly the federal government has been a really trusted and important partner up until January 20th,” Herring said. “That’s funding (and) support for them to improve their practices that they’re not going to receive.”

There were 16 programs in Maine receiving money through Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, including Wolfe’s Neck Center and the New England Forestry Foundation.

The USDA has said select projects can continue if they demonstrate that enough of the funds are going to farmers. Wolfe’s Neck Center is currently evaluating whether it will apply for the new program.

‘A small lifeline’

Seth Kroeck is the owner and manager of Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick, which cultivates organic produce for wholesale buyers like Whole Foods. The farm is home to Little Bluestem, a natural habitat where blueberries grow wild that is “critically imperiled.” 

Cold snaps are something farmers used to experience once a century, Kroeck said. But his farm has suffered from two late-frost cold snaps in just five years, destroying entire crops of wild blueberries.

The farm receives two grants from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The first allocated $50,000 over the course of four years to purchase wood chips to cool the blueberry crops, and the second was for $37,000 over the same period to install windbreaks and pollinator strips.

“These programs … are a small lifeline,” Kroeck said. “Farmers have one of the most high risk businesses out there, in addition to a market that supplies really low margins.”

Improving the soil and climate resiliency leads to higher crop production and helps the natural ecosystem of the farm, Kroeck said. The fact that the USDA grants are in limbo makes continuing this work more difficult.

“It really leaves farmers guessing, holding the bag, and trying their best to fulfill their end of the contract,” Kroeck said.

Ultimately, he said losing these funds will impact the prices Mainers have to pay at the store.

“It’s going to affect our bottom line. It’s going to affect what we need to charge for food,” Kroeck said. “There’s going to be no other results.”

Pushing back

Representative Chellie Pingree, who has an organic farm on North Haven, marched with farmers at the rally in Augusta earlier this month. She spoke out strongly against the cuts and said she would continue advocating for farmers in Washington.

“We’ve also lost a tremendous amount of staffing because of this unelected billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE,” Rep. Pingree said at the rally. “They’re talking and said, ‘We’re going to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse.’ Well, I don’t think anything you’ve heard about today is waste, fraud and abuse. None of it.”

Maine has seen 20 percent of its local USDA staff cut, according to Alexander.

Senator Angus King has cosponsored a bill that would release federal funding for all contracts previously agreed to by USDA. 

“Farmers are an original building block of our state economy, providing jobs and a secure food source for thousands of people in Maine and across the northeast,” King said in a statement. “The Honor Farmer Contracts Act would ensure that Maine’s farmers receive the federal funding from all signed agreements and contracts as quickly as possible to prevent any operations from having to shut down.”

Sinisi, at Old Crow Ranch, said he was debating whether or not to speak out against the cuts.

But he and his wife agreed that it’s a privilege that they’re able to do so. Other farmers they know, especially migrant workers, didn’t even feel safe enough to attend the rally, let alone speak out.

“You feel like you’re going to put a target on yourself,” he said. “It’s absolutely awful.”

Sinisi said he has always been inspired by his grandmother, an immigrant who fled an abusive marriage in war-torn Croatia in search of a better life.

When she passed away, he used the money she left to him to buy a tractor, the first piece of equipment he had on the farm.

“She brought us to a place of freedom,” he said, then expressed dismay over how things have changed. “I am just so grateful that grandma is not here to see it.”

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit civic news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.  

Correction: This story has been updated to say that Old Crow Ranch worked with the Royal River Conservation Trust to be designated as a “forever farm,” and is one of several working farms remaining in Durham. It has also been updated to clarify that the Trump administration has begun releasing REAP funds.