MADISON, Wis. — Amid sweeping cuts to federal spending, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revoked a $500,000 grant to a Madison-based non-profit that planned to commission research that could expand access to community supported agriculture, or CSA, programs nationwide.
“We were hoping to see what CSA producers are doing successfully across the United States and what consumers are looking to buy from CSA,” said Sadie Willis, network coordinator at FairShare CSA Coalition. “Because the word ‘equitable’ was in our title, we’re not able to do that work anymore.”
The USDA awarded FairShare a $500,000 grant last fall as part of its Farmers Market Promotional Program. The money was set to be spent over three years, starting with two major surveys. The first would ask up to 1,500 CSA farmers about their business models and how they were reaching consumers. The second would survey consumers—both CSA customers and non-customers—about their buying habits and what they would value in a CSA.
The results of those surveys would be used to develop educational and marketing materials to help farmers reach new customers, with a focus on disadvantaged communities.
Watch: Federal DEI cuts kill Wisconsin nonprofit's $500,000 grant to boost CSA farms
“The research we would have done through these surveys would have had the potential to transform the CSA market into one that is more approachable and equitable, resulting in more people accessing local farms’ fresh, healthy, nutritious produce,” Willis said.
Last month, the USDA notified FairShare that it was revoking the grant, saying it “no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities.”
“Every administration has a right and an opportunity to sort of implement their own priorities when they come in, but it seems like a scalpel would have been more appropriate than a sword,” said Scott Laeser, who runs the CSA farm Plowshares and Prairie in southwestern Wisconsin alongside his wife.
Laeser argued that all communities should benefit from access to locally grown produce, even if customers can’t afford to pay the traditional lump sum used to purchase a share of a CSA.
“Underinvesting in our local food systems and our local farms is something that we do at our own peril,” he said.
According to Willis, FairShare is seeking other sources of funding to continue its work in some form, and the group has not ruled out working with other non-profits affected by federal funding cuts to file a legal challenge.
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