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Date: 8/1/2023
HATFIELD — The Massachusetts Senate recently passed a $513 million supplemental budget for fiscal year 2023, which includes $20 million in relief for farmers impacted by severe weather.
The vote comes after Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka joined farmers and other legislators at 27 South St. in Hatfield on July 24 to announce the $20 million proposal.
The money was presented after weeks of flooding decimated farms across Central and Western Massachusetts.
“As we’ve seen, the flooding in this region has just been catastrophic,” Spilka said during the announcement. “To say it is once in a generation may not even be appropriate.”
The $20 million would be awarded to farms impacted by the recent floods and the stone fruit farms across the state that were hit by the sudden freezes this past spring. The money is considered “flexible funding” and would be distributed by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and the Executive Office of Administration.
As of press time, it is unclear how the funds will exactly be distributed.
“MDAR works so closely with all of these communities and knows where the needs are immediate,” Spilka said. “We recognize the needs are now.”
The funding was officially introduced in the budget on the afternoon of July 24, and the official vote for the funding occurred on July 26. The money now has to be included in the final committee version of the supplemental budget before reaching Gov. Maura Healey.
According to MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle, over 75 farms have been impacted by the floods and over 2,000 acres have been lost across Central and Western Massachusetts, as of press time. Over $15 million have been lost in crops.
“This isn’t only short term, it’s long term,” said Randle of the effects. “Those numbers are going to continue to grow as farmers face the long-term impacts of what this rain has done to their crops.
Jay Savage, a fourth-generation farmer from Savage Farms in Deerfield, said that his farm has experienced 150 acres of lost land due to the extreme weather.
“The biggest problem is looking toward the near future of what our quality is going to be this year and all the problems this rain is causing,” Savage said. “We’re looking at quality problems now that are actually, that are causing me to question whether we have a marketable crop, and that scares the hell out of me.”
Farmer Bernie Smiarowski said that excessive rain has caused irreparable damage to crops and added that the long-term effects on the land may be even more severe due to disease caused from flooding.
“We hate being in this position, at the worst of a natural disaster, losing all or a portion of our crops this year, unable to pay our bills,” Smiarowski said. “The last thing we want is to have to sell a portion of our farm to make ends meet.”
Smiarowski added that many farms are already carrying large amounts of debt, now exacerbated by the recent floods.
“This aid package will assist all of us by providing financial resources without additional debt,” Smiarowki said.
State Sen. Joe Comerford (D-Northampton) spoke about how this money is necessary right now because of how important farmers are to the commonwealth.
“Farmers are both the heart and the spine of our valley, but also our economic engine,” Comerford said. “We are here to offer that help.”