\n<\/p>\n
Across the United States, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) local service centers provide essential person-to-person resources for farmers and rural landowners. Loans, grants and conservation technical assistance are available in local communities as a service. For years, popular resources such as the conservation cost-share programs Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) have been in high demand<\/a> while local offices have been understaffed. These programs help farmers address needs as varied as soil erosion, water quality and forest land conservation. In the face of extreme weather, many of the practices a farmer can implement through these programs build resilience.<\/p>\n A recent announcement by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) put many of these local USDA offices in the crosshairs \u2014<\/span> leases would be terminated for at least 56 offices, including those for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Rural Housing Service (RHS), plus more for agencies such as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).\u00a0<\/p>\n According to some reporting<\/a>, these leases were targeted because of their lease conditions \u2014<\/span> if no language exists in the lease penalizing the government for backing out, the government is backing out. It is not apparent that these leases were subject to any further analysis \u2014<\/span> nothing on how well these offices are serving farmers or community needs, just the lack of repercussions when backing out of a contract. It appears that DOGE is running afoul<\/a> of a Farm Bill provision which requires the notification of Congress before closing local offices.\u00a0<\/p>\n Others have written well about USDA\u2019s lease terminations, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition<\/a>, Farm Policy News<\/a>, Successful Farming<\/a>, DTN<\/a>, and Agri-Pulse.<\/a> The New York Times<\/a> has written about lease terminations across the government more broadly. The announcement of these lease terminations, which USDA spokespeople are claiming as a rent negotiation tactic<\/a>, comes at a time when thousands of USDA employees have been fired. There are some counties<\/a> across the country where so many recent hires have been let go that the local office has no employees working there.\u00a0<\/p>\n This lack of transparency, stability, and resources for farmers is not good. There are enough other variables in a farmer\u2019s life, from input costs to crop prices, to weather and more. Other administration actions such as the gutting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the National Weather Service, make knowing when it\u2019s the optimal time to plant or harvest much harder. If it\u2019s unclear where one\u2019s local USDA office is, or whether there will even be one, a farmer may be less likely to seek the services of USDA. If leases are terminated completely with no replacement location, it will add to a trend of counties merging offices and farmers needing to drive further and further to access popular programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Below we dive a little deeper into the announced lease terminations of 36 NRCS offices.\u00a0<\/p>\nWhere are NRCS leases being terminated?<\/h2>\n