The sweeping government changes, firings, fund freezes and cutbacks implemented by the current presidential administration have just hit us in the personal business pocket. This is now real, not just something we have been watching on TV.
We were called on Wednesday by the National Resources and Conservation Service employee we have been working with for almost two years now to alert us that the Service has been instructed to freeze all funding under the Congressionally approved Inflation Reduction Act and to stop all work on farm producer projects that were to be funded by these grants under the Act. That is us. That is personal. That is right here at home. The news left me dazed and confused. Hurt. Angry. Betrayed by my own government that I had trusted to uphold their promised part of the bargain. We are a small business, and this kind of financial setback is huge and personal.
Our maple project has been in the works for months and months and months, with us pouring our own hard-earned money into our portion of the agreement and expecting our contracted government grant to pay off the remainder of our debt in the project. We entered this contract in good faith, pledging to uphold our farm’s part of the bargain with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in acquiring new maple equipment to reduce the amount of energy used and emissions spewed in our maple operation. This was a mutually agreed upon arrangement in an effort to make our world a better place. We have been completely blindsided and are in a financial pickle if we do indeed have to come up with the cash promised us by the government out of our own personal pockets to cover the entirety of the project. The equipment is here, installed, tested and functional, and the folks who made it are looking for their money.
Whether or not the promised federal funds will be released in the future is a complete unknown and probably a way down the road, leaving us in a quandary as the clock has already ticked to the end of the project. To suffer this blow is creating some very real, very serious scrambling to get our bills paid and also is also creating a personal mistrust of anything “government” in my middle-of-the-road mind. I always thought the government worked for and protected the people. Today I’m not so sure.
My heart bleeds for the government employees fired, furloughed or pressured into buyouts. The “cleaning house” tactics now being used by the current administration in their voiced ambition to root-out government corruption, overspending and mismanagement of government (yours and my) agencies and funds are not uncommon in the business world, but are creating some very real angst and pain in the people of the nation. I am trying not to blast to the world my political views, afraid (as are most who disagree with the events of the day) of personal and business backlash, but I am not a happy farmer right now. My business and personal finances have been squeezed and (perhaps unintentionally) threatened just like some political rivals, government employees and agencies have been squeezed and threatened of late. The reasons for the various squeezes may be retaliation as the president promised to his political rivals or may just be collateral damage. I don’t want to get into a political mud wrestling match and I care not whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent like me, but real people are being hurt by the actions of our government leadership right now, seemingly without a care, and that is wrong.
Maybe government agencies are being mismanaged. Maybe our taxpayer funds are being mismanaged. I do not believe that widespread firings, grant freezes, and trampling over the systems and people in place to distribute and administer previously approved funds and actions are the way to solve any issues. Firing watchdogs that are already in place is not the way to solve issues. Threatening party members with political retribution or alienation at mid-term election time is not the way to solve issues. Not working with Congress members and Senators on both sides of the aisle is not the way to solve issues. Alienating the half of the voting population that did not check the box in support of your administration is not how to “bring the people together,” and solve issues but is actually driving a bigger wedge and making a deeper chasm between the right and left voters, with those of us in the middle falling into a chasm too deep to be heard.
Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s when protests, rallies and loud voices were common, I find it hard to sit tight and worry about how I might be treated or mistreated for having thoughts and dreams and passions that differ with the folks at the helm or my friends, employees, customers or neighbors who think differently than me. I realize that my words can have detrimental effects on my personal and even my business life, but it’s a price I am willing to pay if those that disagree with me stop buying my tomatoes and foodstuffs because of voicing what I think and feel. Political views spoken always have the potential for backlash, but this is what our founding fathers had in mind. We need to disagree with one another and argue with one another in order to find the way forward that benefits all of us. We need to agree to disagree on occasion. But when real people are feeling real pain because of real political moves, something is not right. If we do not speak out, we are going to be affected anyway, and when I am being hurt, I want others to know. As they say, “See something? Say something.”
Even if the IRA funds that are now suspended and being withheld from my government contract are released in the future and my present financial dilemma is rectified, I vow to speak out when I think something is going wrong. Every single time. It may not be public, it may not be in print, it may be a conversation, or a letter directed to a Senator, a Congressman or a school board member, but I will speak up in case anyone wants to listen. As I have written previously, I urge you to speak out. Speak up. Call your government representatives. Become involved in our unique American political system. Do not be afraid. Take a stand. Stand up for yourself, your wallet, your business, your neighbor and your fellow country(wo)man who may also feel lost and without a voice in the “moderate chasm.” Don’t sit silent in your dazed confusion and wait to see what happens next, because silence is complicity, and if we don’t stand up for ourselves, no one else will either.
