When Javier Zamora began his organic berry farm more than ten years ago, he worked with only half the land in the monster district, not far from the central coast of California. Today he and his team grow strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, as well as vegetables and flowers, for more than 100 acres. Recently, Samora participated in the farmer market organized by the San Jose school, which mainly serves the Latin American community.
At this event, Zamora found that he not only brought fresh products for students, but also introduced them to products that they had never tried before.
“They never see Brussels cabbage or purple potatoes, and they definitely never get a try of French strawberries, like Mara de Bois, or golden raspberries,” said Zamora. “So it makes me feel really, it’s very pleasant to communicate with these people.”
The introduction with other communities outside his farm is important for Froray, which comes from an agricultural family in Mexico. This became much easier after the purchase of a chilled wagon with a grant of 150,000 US dollars from the California Food and Agriculture Department or CDFA. Now he can deliver to customers to Sacramento, delivering his berries to school areas in about three hours.
“We had it for two years, and this is incredible. This is a wonderful thing and travels well, ”he said about the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. “And we can deliver up to 400 cases of strawberries, which is really good.”
A recent report shows that the farm to school Grant programWhich began in 2021, was effective in supporting small, medium and socially or economically disadvantaged farmers. The program is open for submitting applications from farmers, schools, centers for children to care and other organizations oriented to help schools with local food purchases or other initiatives for food education. It is intended to support local manufacturers and bring more fresh, sustainably grown products for students throughout California.
This is also a sign of how some states continue to support farmers in the face of growing federal abbreviations.
In 2022, an independent group of researchers from the University of California in Berkeley, the University of California in agriculture and natural resources, the US Department of Agriculture and other groups intends to evaluate how well the grant program complies with the state program of the state road map To create a more fair and stable regional food system. The road map initially set the purpose of the distribution of 25 percent of the funds in 2022, and then 40 percent of the funds in 2024, for those small and medium farmers, historically left by the capabilities in the food system.
According to the report, the program has far surpassed that: last year, 100 percent of grant financing went to these priority farmers, compared with 84 percent in 2022.
One of the other goals of the grant program is to support and stimulate farmers in the adoption of practices related to climate, such as Coper Croping, which stabilize and improve the soil chemistry and improve soil's ability to store carbon. On this note, the program has several mixed results: the assessment group found that most of the money awarded by CDFA did not go to farmers experimenting with Climate-Smart AG. Instead, grants are gathered to manufacturers who are already introducing this practice, said Bet Katz, one of the participants in the report.
Katz is interested in how the grants program can better help farmers who are newcomers in climate commander, but believes that the support of farmers who already use this practice is still useful for the environment. IN California And throughout the countrySmall farms with all their might try to make ends meet in the era of reducing federal programs. If state dollars help these farmers stay in business, this means that they can continue to introduce more environmentally friendly practices, said Katz, who also heads a research company for food systems.
For Zamora, I bought it a chilled van, which came out about $ 100,000, would not be possible without support from the CDFA. “Many farmers, we simply do not have such a test to buy something like that, so these grants are just an incredible tool for us,” he said. He hopes to apply for additional financing during the next cycle of grants-can, for more van, cooler or other types of infrastructure.
Progress in California demonstrates how the states can help farmers that depended on federal programs that contributed to the purchase of local food that were closed or underfunded by the Trump administration. With the closure of the federal government, which began on Wednesday, American farmers feel more compresses than whenThe reference regime of the Trump administration with a farmer country was mixed this year, since the president’s trade war with China and most other parts of the world meant that farmers should find new markets for their crops.
Loss of access to vital public services from the fight against Congress will probably aggravate this financial pressure. For example, the Farm Management Agency, the essence of the US Department of Agriculture, which provides farm loans and assistance in natural disasters and controls the conservation programs, Closed offices throughout the country As an AG department Detaching half of their laborThe field since the Republicans and Democrats accuse each other of financing, which is expected to last At least until next weekTrump and his allies threaten to resort to dismissal or Constant abbreviations If the transaction is not reached in the near future.
State programs, such as California's, can help compensate for some of the economic uncertainty that farmers face, while the struggle for financing plans is delayed. “I think this is simply even more important,” Katz said. “And I think that all the investments that California continues to do in school nutrition programs and infrastructure of food systems, in general are something like a buffer” for both manufacturers and consumers.
The Farm Grants Program to school also successfully helped schools in remote areas gain access to local products, working with organizations such as food centers.
According to Mati Moon, coordinator in education in the garden, in the school district of Julian Union in the district of San Diego, the construction of a program in which students could interact with local farmers, including a non -profit organization that provides a non -profit organization of Mati Moon for Julian Union. Many years ago, the district received Grant from the farm to school from USDA “But the rural location of schools made it difficult to contact the farmers, said Moon.”
Work with CDFA was more fruitful. The Moon applied for a grant from the farm to the school on behalf of the Julian path, which is purchasing food for the school district’s nutrition program. Having received funding, the contact of the Moon in the CDFA called on it to contact the local food center, which distributes fresh products throughout the San Diego district. The Moon was able to convince the center to deliver it to the community by creating agriculture or CSA, a program and signing about 75 families to receive products from the center. Thanks to this, we were able to provide some regular supplies in the Julian region to support our food program ”using grant dollars, Moon said.
The creation of relations with the food center, which could previously consider Julian too far to work, was a blessing for the community. “The attachment to this network, which allows schools and enterprises to gain access to products from all over the district in a simpler and more economically effective way, is associated with a change in the game,” Moon said.
Sokora once dreams of opening his own food center and supporting more and more farmers hoping to sell their food at the local level. He notes that his farm has lost several customers, since USDA funding, which they once relied on drying. Nevertheless, he remains encouraging his business, and also hopes that more of his peers will be able to use grant programs, such as those that CDFA offers when they develop new ways to stay afloat. “At least in my case, which I submitted to, and what I received was nothing more than a blessing,” said Zamora.
Correction: The earlier version of this article wrote the name of the organization, headed by Beth Katz.
