SKAGIT COUNTY — Each time Francisco Farias bends low with his knife to slice arugula, chard, mustard and kale, he harvests a dream come true.
Previously a farmworker who toiled for others, Farias now operates his own farm, growing organic vegetables and berries outside Burlington with his wife and adult kids. They live in a tidy bungalow next to some of their fields, he said last week, pointing out a spot where he’ll plant blueberries this spring.
It’s an entrepreneurial path made possible by a local nonprofit — yet a path Farias worries may soon be closing because President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen most of the organization’s funding as billionaire adviser Elon Musk seeks to overhaul the government’s spending.
Skagit County-based Viva Farms, which teaches would-be farmers about the business of agriculture and helps them get going, lost access in January to grants worth millions of dollars. Suddenly and without explanation.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture didn’t reply this week to questions about Viva Farms, whose predicament reflects a wider problem.
Billions of congressionally approved dollars for farm projects and other recipients have been in limbo nationally, advocates say, despite court rulings. In a news call Tuesday with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, rural food banks, military shipbuilders and senior housing providers all reported frozen funds.
The payments withheld from Viva Farms are a drop in that bucket. But they’re a crisis for the organization, Executive Director Michael Frazier said.
Federal grants represent about 70% of the nonprofit’s revenue, so Viva Farms may not survive long without them. Frazier has already stopped construction on a new barn and is considering layoffs in the coming weeks.
Similar disruptions are hitting communities across the country, as Trump’s decisions trickle down to people like Farias. He normally concentrates on weather and soil chemistry, rather than politics.
“I’m just thinking about people like me who have this dream,” the 45-year-old Mexican immigrant said in Spanish about the frozen funds. “If Viva weren’t here, people like me wouldn’t be able to be in this position.”
Farm incubator
Founded in 2009 as a training program and business incubator to combat the loss of local farms to retirements and development, Viva Farms today operates about 100 acres of agricultural land in Skagit and King counties.
The nonprofit runs an eight-month course in sustainable agriculture and then provides new farmers with startup support. They get low-cost land leases and equipment rentals, a place to wash and pack their crops and help with grants, loans and marketing. Viva Farms also acts as a buyer and distributor.
The idea is to preserve the area’s agricultural economy by seeding the next generation of organic farmers, Frazier said. With classes conducted in English and Spanish, Viva Farms trains several dozen people each year.
People like Grace Lemley, who quit her sales job at a Seattle tech company in 2021 to start farming with her fiancé in Skagit County. They tend vegetables and flowers on land leased from Viva Farms, using greenhouse tunnels to cultivate certain crops through the winter, she said.
It’s grueling work, with a to-do list that never ends, said Lemley, 30. But it’s fulfilling to grow healthy food in the shadow of the mighty Cascades.
“It’s the best life in the world,” she said.
Viva Farms is currently connected to about 35 businesses, which sold about $3 million in produce last year, reaching stores like PCC and Whole Foods through the nonprofit. They also sell independently, including at farmers markets in Seattle and around the Puget Sound region. Viva Farms has 13 full-time employees.
“It’s people helping people,” Frazier said. “What could be wrong with that?”
Funding freeze
Frazier realized Viva Farms might be in trouble after Trump ordered a pause of “Green New Deal” disbursements from 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act and an end to “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs. The president described those steps as in line with his winning campaign’s promises to voters.
Although Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen thinks Viva Farms does good work, he believes federal spending in general should be reined in.
“You can’t spend more money than you have,” said the Republican, a fourth-generation dairy farmer. “Somebody’s got to draw the line.”
Still, the funding freeze has shaken industry groups like the National Farmers Union, which has reported “economic pressure in the countryside,” and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which has warned Congress about “irreversible and devastating impacts to farmers and communities.”
Tens of thousands of farmers in blue and red states have lost access to money they’re owed, said Mike Lavender, the coalition’s policy director. It’s a big deal in Washington, where agriculture drives 12% of the state’s economy.
Viva Farms holds several multiyear U.S. Department of Agriculture grants, including more than $4.6 million in funds meant to provide historically underserved farmers with technical assistance, land and equipment.
They’re reimbursement-based grants, but Viva Farms isn’t getting paid for its invoices, apparently due to Trump’s executive orders, Frazier said. He doesn’t know for sure why, or when the situation may change because officials haven’t answered his questions. The nonprofit also has funds tied to climate and conservation grants that could be at risk, he said.
“We’ve reached out to the USDA,” Frazier said. “Nobody will reply.”
Before the freeze, Viva Farms was working to complete its largest-ever capital project — a 7,500-square-foot new barn for washing, packing, storing and distributing crops. Now that project has been shelved, with Frazier asking private donors to shift the money to the organization’s operations.
The half-built barn is an empty shell where owls are starting to nest, said Frazier, who met with staff last month to announce layoffs. A new donor called the next day with help, allowing him to delay the staff cuts until April.
Meanwhile, “We’re trying to beat the bushes” for more funds, Frazier said.
Waiting to hear
Losing Viva Farms could threaten as many as 100 jobs, Frazier said, and set back the area’s agricultural future. He worries about the three dozen aspiring farmers his organization is supposed to train this year and the three dozen businesses that rely on the nonprofit to grow and sell their crops.
Some of those businesses have their own grants, as well. Lemley and her fiancé are “waiting and scared” to hear about federal funds they hoped to spend on an additional greenhouse tunnel, compost and fertilizer.
“That’s up in the air right now,” said Lemley’s fiancé, Griffin Lehman.
It’s why Murray invited Viva Farms to her Tuesday news call, skipping a Trump speech to Congress in which he proclaimed his “love” for farmers. During her call, Murray accused the president and Musk of grinding the country by freezing funds to a halt “in total disregard of the law.”
“People need to understand this is having a huge impact,” the Democrat said.
Wesen, the Skagit commissioner, said farmers may need to adjust to funding changes, like they adjust to changes in supply and demand: “If that source isn’t there anymore, you have to make some other choices,” he said.
But Lavender, from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said it’s hard “to wrap my head” around the chaos. Debating the size and scope of the federal government is reasonable; a “sledgehammer” approach isn’t, he said.
Lehman also doesn’t understand why many U.S. farmers are getting shortchanged. Rather than importing food from abroad, he thinks Americans “would rather have our food coming from as close to home as possible.”
Everybody has to eat, including Trump and Musk, Lehman noted.
“It feels like what we do is being undervalued,” he said.
