Will Disaster Relief Come Through for North Carolina’s Small Farms?
After the storm subsided, DelCogliano fretted for hours until finally a text came through from an unknown number: “Farm flooded,” her husband, Gaelan Corozine, wrote. “I’m safe. Love you.” The next day, Corozine—who drove over 50 miles of washed-out roads to reunite with his family—told them that everything was gone. “We were all hugging and […]
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When Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina this September, Nicole DelCogliano sheltered with her two daughters in Asheville, while her husband rode out the storm alone on their 16-acre organic vegetable farm, Green Toe Ground, in nearby Yancey County.
After the storm subsided, DelCogliano fretted for hours until finally a text came through from an unknown number: “Farm flooded,” her husband, Gaelan Corozine, wrote. “I’m safe. Love you.” The next day, Corozine—who drove over 50 miles of washed-out roads to reunite with his family—told them that everything was gone.
Green Toe Ground farm in Yancey County, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene. (Photo courtesy of Green Toe Ground)
“We were all hugging and sobbing together,” DelCogliano later recalled, her voice quavering.
Road closures blocked their return to the farm, so the family hiked over hills and hitched rides. Arriving there felt like seeing the aftermath of an earthquake, DelCogliano said. “The whole landscape was different, trees everywhere . . . barn rubble everywhere, our van on the side of the road and the tunnels a mess of plastic and metal.”
Green Toe Ground Farm is nestled into a bend of the South Toe River, which crested at 30 feet above its normal height during Helene, inundating the farm. When the river ebbed from their fields, it took all their crops, scoured the topsoil from one field, and left sand deposits in two others. The storm destroyed their four high tunnels, two utility buildings, and barn.
It swept away the potatoes, winter squash, and dried flowers for wreath-making, stored in the barn, and their 20-year-old horse, Star Darling, which they found wrapped in barbed wire and badly injured. Their home, which is set back from the river, was spared, though many neighbors weren’t so lucky, DelCogliano said.
DelCogliano estimates they lost 30 percent of their annual revenue because the farm was fully planted. The infrastructure will cost $150,000 to replace, and tree removal and land grading will add further costs. All told, the storm will cost the family roughly $300,000.
Green Toe Ground is one of many small, diversified farms serving local markets in western North Carolina that was devastated by Hurricane Helene. The full extent of regional agricultural damages is unknown, but “many [farms] have had 50 to 100 percent of their crops wiped out, infrastructure destroyed, and lots of topsoil loss and soil contamination from the flooding,” said Aaron Johnson, co-director of policy at the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI). Farmers who didn’t lose everything are struggling to find markets for crops that were spared.
“Every farm in our network will be impacted by the storm, either by direct damage or through loss of market outlets,” said Sarah Hart, communications coordinator at Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), a membership organization with 900 farms and 400 food businesses.
A Limited Federal Safety Net
In the storm’s immediate aftermath, neighbors offered DelCogliano a lifeline. “People came together to clear the roads, bring out chainsaws . . . help each other navigate basic food and water,” she said. “The only thing we had was each other.”
Vermont farmers lost $44 million due to extreme weather in 2023, but received only $1.5 million in USDA relief funds.
Over the short term, western North Carolina’s tight-knit food and farming community is helping farmers recover. RAFI, ASAP, and other groups are offering small grants and helping connect farmers to markets for products not destroyed by the flood, including relief organizations.
Other organizations are raising money to pay farmers who have been donating products to relief groups. Wendy Burgh, co-owner of Dry Ridge Farm, a small poultry and livestock operation in Mars Hill, North Carolina, donated $4,000 worth of eggs the first week after the storm and was later repaid by Farm Connection. “Getting paid was a game changer, both emotionally and for the financial stability of the farm,” she said.
Over the longer term, however, North Carolina farmers face a limited safety net to help them recoup losses and rebuild their operations. Charitable aid can only go so far. Some state aid is available for farmers, but the bulk of disaster assistance comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)—the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) covers personal losses only.
Yet there are many obstacles to obtaining USDA relief, including onerous paperwork, low payouts, coverage exclusions, and a shortage of staff. Also, some of the agency’s emergency relief funds depend on ad hoc congressional approval, which means payments can arrive years after a disaster.
What’s more, USDA’s federal crop insurance, commodity support, and disaster relief programs were designed for, and largely benefit, big commodity-crop growers. “Most farmers in the United States are small or mid-sized family farmers, but these are the producers that are left behind from the USDA programs that are supposed to help in the aftermath of disaster,” said Billy Hackett, a policy specialist at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and author of the report “Unsustainable: State of the Farm Safety Net.”
Navigating USDA’s Relief Programs
It’s still early days for USDA’s response to North Carolina’s disaster. The experience of Vermont farmers after epic flooding in 2023 and 2024, however, offers a window into the shortcomings of a federal disaster relief system that may be further weakened under a second Trump administration. Vermont farmers lost $44 million due to extreme weather in 2023, but received only $1.5 million in USDA relief funds, according to the Vermont Agricultural Recovery Task Force. What’s more, only 30 percent of the state’s 6,800 farms carry crop insurance.
Ansel Ploog, co-owner of Flywheel Farm in Woodbury, Vermont, standing at the edge of the creek that swelled in 2023, taking all of the farm’s crops. (Photo credit: Meg Wilcox)
For small farmers in the wake of disaster, getting USDA relief can be daunting—especially when they’re coping with traumatic loss. Trauma can lead to cognitive impairment, lack of concentration, and difficulty with problem solving or even just reading complex forms, noted Ansel Ploog, co-owner of Flywheel Farm in Woodbury, Vermont, which flooded in 2023. Ploog said she was too exhausted by the paperwork requirements, which were hard to translate to her two-acre farm, and hardship in her community, to apply for relief.
“The harder part [of recovery] is navigating all the resources,” DelCogliano said. “I felt paralyzed every time I opened my computer, like, let me go drag some shit around. It’s way easier.”
“There’s no one in this area who isn’t traumatized in some way,” said Wendy Brugh, co-owner of Dry Ridge Farm, a small poultry and livestock operation in Mars Hill, North Carolina, whose farm lost a hoop house and much of its fencing. Her biggest problem has been finding ongoing markets for the thousands of eggs her farm produces daily. “Being in the presence of that kind of destruction [in the community] on a regular basis is heavy.”
Farmer support organizations are helping farmers with USDA paperwork and deadlines—but they can only do so much, notes Roland McReynolds, executive director of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, which compiled a comprehensive listing of relief resources for farmers.
The USDA held webinars last month to explain its relief programs, noting on October 7 that it had embedded staff with FEMA and had more than 200 people involved in the response.
“We’re looking for ways that we can streamline, that we can enhance our flexibility to get folks in, that we can reduce barriers . . . to make it easier for folks to take advantage of our programs,” said Robert Bonnie, USDA’s Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation.
While that’s encouraging, Maddie Kempner, policy and organizing director at the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Vermont cautions, “the availability of a lot of these [USDA] programs ends up being like a mirage,” because farmers learn that exclusions make them ineligible, or the payouts are too small to make the applications worth the trouble.
Federal programs that can help smaller, diversified farms recover from extreme weather include the noninsured crop disaster assistance program (NAP) and the Whole Farm Revenue Protection program (WFRP). For both, farmers must be enrolled before disaster strikes. USDA also offers cost-share programs for needs such as land cleanup and tree removal, and for losses in livestock, feed, and grazing land. Emergency loans are sometimes available, too. Farmers access all these programs, except WFRP, through USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) network.
The Noninsured Crop Disaster Program (NAP)
NAP is a hybrid crop insurance and disaster assistance program designed for farmers unable to access traditional crop insurance, which is geared for big farms. It offers free basic coverage for new and socially disadvantaged farmers, including women.
But NAP has been relatively under-enrolled in western North Carolina, said McReynolds. “Anticipating a one in 100-, 500- or 30,000-year flooding event just wasn’t on folks’ radar.”
Moreover, crops must be planted before certain dates under NAP, and those dates don’t match up with southern Appalachian crop seasons.
Green Toe Ground did not have NAP protection. The program requires farmers to enroll each crop individually, which is a burden for farmers like DelCogliano, who grows 30 different organic vegetables and raises a few animals to create compost for soil health. “The most cumbersome aspect with diversified vegetable farming is, it’s hard to fit into the USDA boxes,” she said.
Other farmers have had mixed experience with NAP. Digger’s Mirth Collective Farm in Winooski, Vermont, for example, lost $250,000 in revenue after 2023’s massive floods, but thus far has been reimbursed only $1,300, according to Hilary Martin, one of its members. “I spent so many hours, I had literal back pains from the paperwork involved in submitting all our crop information and losses,” she said.
After the farm flooded again in July 2024, Martin said the collective decided not to bother filing a claim until their FSA agent urged them to file. But when Martin filed for 2024 losses, she learned they weren’t eligible because they had replanted before their agent visited the farm.
“We were just way more aggressive about replanting,” this year, she said. While they had taken pictures and documented everything they had done, they had violated the terms of coverage. That means they will not receive any reimbursements from USDA for their 2024 losses. Instead, they have relied on state and local charitable funds.
Having to wait for an FSA agent to visit your farm makes it that much harder when the staffing at those offices is minimal, said Kempner. USDA has waived that requirement for farmers impacted by Helene.
David Marchant, co-owner of River Berry Farm in Fairfax, Vermont, a diversified vegetable and fruit grower, makes NAP work for him, which he receives for free. “The federal programs are good,” he said. “[But] they’re very, very slow. The amount of paperwork is extraordinary. You got to know how to figure it out.”
Whole Farm Revenue Protection
The Whole Farm Revenue Protection program (WFRP) was created in part to address NAP shortcomings. It allows farmers to enroll in crop insurance based on their overall revenue rather than on a crop-by-crop basis. Nevertheless, participation remains low, with only 1,967 U.S. farmers (.01 percent of farms) purchasing a policy in 2023. Complicated rules and paperwork, farmer skepticism, and disinterested insurance agents who make more money from policies covering one or two crops on large farms discourage farmers from enrolling, according to the NSAC report. Crop losses also have to be substantial for a payout to make a difference, noted Marchant.
Tiny Bridge farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina, before Hurricane Helene. (Photo courtesy of Ed Graves)
DelCogliano was not covered by WFRP, which is not uncommon in western North Carolina. In fact, less than five percent of the farmers in ASAP’s network are covered by any crop insurance, said Hart.
Ed Graves, however, was motivated to purchase the coverage after experiencing bad flooding on his Hendersonville farm in 2021. His five-acre organic vegetable farm, Tiny Bridge, lost all its fall plantings to Hurricane Helene—broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, leafy greens, carrots, radishes, and turnips. He pays $1,500 annually to carry WFRP and hopes to be reimbursed $10,000 from it, based on his earnings the past three years.
Tiny Bridge immediately after Hurricane Helene. (Photo courtesy of Ed Graves)
“I know how to fill out paperwork,” he said. “Maybe it’s because I worked in civil service for 20 years, so I understand how to ask for what I need from a bureaucracy.”
Cost-Sharing and Emergency Loans
Several USDA disaster relief grant programs are a good fit for smaller farms, such as the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), both of which help farmers clean up and regrade disaster-impacted land. Neither of these programs covers the costs of soil testing or rebuilding, although farmers can seek assistance for longer-term soil health improvement, such as cover crop planting, through USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS).
RAFI has been most successful helping farmers apply for ECP, Johnson said, noting that some farmers have already received preliminary approval for land clearing and grading work. They’ll be reimbursed for 75 percent of the costs up to a $125,000 cap, depending on their farm size, though it’s unclear how quickly they’ll receive that money.
“While we cannot predict the exact timing of payments being issued, we can assure that every effort is made to provide the resources needed to get the assistance to those who need it as soon as possible,” a USDA spokesperson said in an email to Civil Eats.
DelCogliano filed an application for ECP funds but has not yet received approval and does not know how much money the farm may receive. Brugh estimates it will cost $100,000 to get all the dangerous trees removed from her farm, and she is exploring multiple sources of funding, including ECP.
For farmers who don’t have prior NAP or WFRP coverage, and whose major losses are crops, equipment or buildings, a USDA emergency loan is about all that is available to them.
“It’s shocking for a farmer who has hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, who has maybe had to lay off their entire crew, especially at the peak of harvest season, to be told all they can offer you is a loan,” Kempner said.
USDA’s emergency loans become available when the agricultural secretary or president declares a disaster in their county, but these are historically underutilized, in part because they often have higher interest rates than USDA direct loans, a USDA spokesperson said in an email to Civil Eats.
In other words, if a farmer qualifies for private credit, they are not eligible for a USDA emergency loan. For Joie Lehouillier, co-owner of Foote Brook Farm in Vermont, it “was a real kick in the teeth” to be told that her good relationship with a private lender disqualified her from a lower-interest USDA loan.
Lehouillier’s farm lost 95 percent of its crops and more than half a million dollars in equipment and supplies in the 2023 floods, she said. “Even though we got a tremendous amount of help through [state funding], it’s going to be a struggle for the next few years to just get back on our feet,” especially with the high-interest debt, she added.
The Farm Bill, the Future, and Prospects for Reform
In addition to the programs above, USDA provides supplemental emergency disaster funds to farmers when approved by Congress. Prior to the Biden Administration, that aid went only to farmers enrolled in a crop insurance or disaster program, leaving out most small farms. Congress has not yet appropriated such aid for 2023 or 2024 disasters. President Biden recently asked Congress to authorize $24 billion in emergency relief funds for USDA, appealing for that aid to reach all impacted farmers, including those not enrolled in a USDA program.
Hackett told Civil Eats that there is considerable momentum to pass a relief bill, and that it’s “very possible” that the current Congress will authorize disaster assistance inclusive of all farmers. That possibility becomes “less likely” with the next Congress, Hackett said.
Advocates have proposed changes to the farm bill to make USDA’s safety net more inclusive of small farmers hit by extreme weather. But Congress will likely not pick up the bill until later in 2025. With Republicans regaining control of the U.S. Senate, Congress has bigger fish to fry, such as a tax overhaul package, Johnson said.
In the meantime, a USDA spokesperson said, “the farm bill expiration does not impact the ability of FSA and NRCS to support producers impacted by hurricanes,” and that “hurricane recovery efforts will continue through the administration transition.”
“There’s no one in this area who isn’t traumatized in some way.”
Kempner, of NOFA Vermont, is pessimistic that a Republican farm bill will embrace the reforms that are needed to help small-scale, diversified farmers remain resilient in the face of climate change. She is also concerned about Trump’s history of withholding aid for communities that don’t support him politically. Nevertheless, she said, “It’s important that we’re talking to each other across state lines about the kinds of structural changes that we need to be pushing for long term,” such as the creation of a permanently available disaster relief program within USDA based on farm revenue and with a short turnaround of, say, 30 days.
DelCogliano, meanwhile, awaits the results of soil tests to learn what remediation may be necessary as she plans how to rebuild Green Toe Ground. “It’s a lot of things to figure out—the barn, the greenhouses, all the systems.”
On top of that, she has to figure out how to rebuild for resiliency to increasingly extreme weather. The whole riparian zone has changed, she said. “Any big rain event is going to be much higher impact than before, because there’s nothing on the sides of the rivers holding it [within] its banks anymore. What would a rebuild look like in a way that could mitigate risk? Where’s our safety valve?”
Like many other farmers, DelCogliano and Corozine are waiting for USDA approval of their application for land cleanup reimbursements. Meanwhile, they’re relying on a personal GoFundMe account and local charitable aid to pay their bills. “I still don’t have an idea of what [federal support] is going to look like,” DelCogliano said. “And that’s challenging.”
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