Stacks of boxes, each containing nonperishable food items, are piled high in the small storeroom at Martinsville’s Uptown Ministries. Pastor Faith Weedling, along with a handful of others in her ministry, prepare between 140 and 210 boxes of assorted groceries that guests take home every third Saturday. 

Despite the stacks of food-filled boxes, Weedling and others worry that these might be their last days of maintaining a storeroom-filling surplus. She isn’t alone. 

As the U.S. Department of Agriculture grapples with possible decreases in funding, Uptown Ministries, which gets half of its food supply from the USDA, and other local food pantries that rely on the federal agency are bracing for the worst, according to Pamela Irvine, president and CEO of Feeding Southwest Virginia. 

The Salem-based organization distributes food to around 360 pantries and nonprofit feeding programs throughout the region.

Irvine said that while the reduction in USDA funding will trickle down to a wide range of local agencies, communities like the ones Feeding Southwest Virginia serves will be particularly impacted. She said the nonprofit’s service region has historically depended on a handful of industries such as textiles, furniture and tobacco. 

In March, the USDA was subject to a freeze of around $1 billion as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut government spending. 

Food banks throughout Virginia and the country have been affected, and lawmakers have taken notice. Most recently, in an open letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, some members of Virginia’s congressional delegation — including Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem — expressed concern about the impact that rolling back food bank support would have. 

“More than 400 local pantries, including many faith-based partners from Hampton Roads to Southwest Virginia, distribute the food to eligible low-income recipients who typically do not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and have few alternatives to turn to for help,” reads the open letter. “In Virginia, approximately 10 percent of households are ‘food insecure,’ meaning their access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources. On average, food pantry visits increased more than 20 percent in Virginia last year and Virginia food banks are spending five times more money now than in 2019 due to greater demand and higher food prices.”

Regional impact 

The USDA works with organizations like Feeding Southwest Virginia to bridge the gap between the federal agency and the local food pantries that serve communities. The USDA and Feeding Southwest Virginia have worked together since the early 1990s. 

“It has been an extremely important partnership,” Irvine said, adding that the USDA is useful for pantries that don’t have access to local food sources. “We don’t have many food manufacturers in Southwest Virginia, therefore I had to look for additional resources to be able to provide enough food to feed individuals in that 26-county area.” 

USDA accounts for around 31% of Feeding Southwest Virginia’s food supply. Irvine said this translates to $513,000 worth of food that her agency receives from the USDA every quarter. 

In a worst-case scenario, one in which the USDA is no longer able to contribute, Irvine’s agency would have to fundraise that amount and find vendors to fill in the gap. Even if successful, it wouldn’t completely supplement the USDA’s contribution. Irvine said a dollar spent at a non-USDA source wouldn’t return as much product compared to what the USDA gives to its regional partners. 

Their most recent food order for the upcoming quarter has been put on pause. Irvine said she doesn’t know what this pause might entail over the coming weeks. 

She said that while the situation is concerning, it isn’t unprecedented. She said that there have been instances in the past that threatened her agency’s supply of food. Economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic reduced donations, another important source for the agency’s food supply. 

Local impact 

Uptown Ministries Center Food Bank operates in Martinsville and serves between 140 and 210 households every month. A portion of its food supply comes from the USDA by way of Feeding Southwest Virginia. 

Linda Adams, a volunteer, said she is afraid that what is going on at the federal level will trickle down to Martinsville. 

“I feel like if they cut back on the USDA’s budget it will affect all food banks, probably,” Adams said. “I hope that doesn’t happen, but we don’t have anything to keep it from happening.” 

Adams said that the USDA gives her organization an assortment of essentials, from meat to vegetables. What the food pantry doesn’t get from the USDA, it supplements with donations and food purchased with grant funding. 

Adams said that while donations may vary from organization to organization, the USDA is a reliable source.  

“I don’t want to say that they give us all our food, because they definitely don’t,” Adams said. 

While pantries continue to monitor the situation at USDA, organizations like the Grace Network show that this kind of community work is possible without USDA assistance. 

The faith-based Grace Network has served Martinsville and Henry County for about 19 years, said director Tracy Hinchcliff. Grace Network is supported by a network of churches throughout the community and serves about 1,400 households annually. 

“When we started Grace Network, it was a startup from the faith community, churches from across the community and now we are supported by over 100 churches,” Hinchcliff said. The pantry doesn’t accept any government grants or funds from the government, she said. 

On March 22, the Harvest Foundation held a community conversation at Grace Presbyterian Church in Martinsville to talk about food insecurity. Organizers titled the event “Healthy Futures: A Community Conversation on Food Access.”

Last year’s closure of a Family Dollar that served this part of the city prompted the conversation. Participants discussed ways to combat food insecurity and what impact it has had in their own neighborhoods. 

“All organizations aren’t able to provide for everyone in need,” said Jean Hairston, a member of Grace Presbyterian who participated in the event. “If you don’t have a car or if you can’t get on the bus, you have to find a ride or you’re in trouble. From Fayette Street to [U.S.] 220, there are only two stores that residents can go to if they have transportation — Walmart and Kroger. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need the support organizations because we do, it means that [they alone] will not solve the food desert issue.” 

Solutions event participants suggested included year-round farmers’ markets and community gardens. 

As local pantries monitor the funding situation, they hope the USDA will continue to be a factor in their efforts to combat food insecurity in their respective communities. 

“We’re hoping as they evaluate … they see the value of this program that helps our neighbors,” Irvine said.

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A major disaster declaration for the Southwest Virginia counties affected by catastrophic flooding in February has been approved by President Donald Trump, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday afternoon.

The disaster declaration, which opens up federal aid, was for public assistance only, while a final determination on individual assistance has not been made, according to the governor.

Individual assistance provides funding to eligible individuals and households that have sustained losses in a disaster. Public assistance can pay for repairing and replacing public facilities and infrastructure. 

Additional funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and new state funding agreed to by the governor and the General Assembly this week will also be available for ongoing recovery efforts, according to Youngkin. 

“I am grateful to President Trump and the entire Administration for moving forward in their approval of the major disaster declaration,” Youngkin said in a news release. “We will continue to seek every recovery resource necessary to support Virginians that have been adversely impacted by these storms. I committed to assist those with immediate needs to ensure the health and safety of survivors and we will continue our efforts to seek opportunities to rebuild these communities.”  

Following several days of heavy rain, storms hit over the weekend of Feb. 15-16, destroying and damaging homes, washing out roads and leaving thousands without power. The community of Hurley in Buchanan County and parts of Dickenson and Tazewell counties were particularly hit hard.

As much as 7 inches of rain fell over some parts of Southwest Virginia, resulting in flash flooding, closed roads and mudslides. One man died after being swept away by the high water in Bland County. Ninety homes had major damage, and 18 houses were destroyed, according to preliminary estimates from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Originally, the disaster declaration request was for Buchanan, Dickenson and Russell counties, but the governor later expanded it to include Bland, Giles, Lee, Pulaski, Russell, Scott, Smyth and Wise counties.

“President Trump’s approval of this request is a major step in securing federal resources to help Southwest Virginia recover from historic flooding,” Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, said via text message Friday. 

The General Assembly approved $50 million in the state budget to help communities rebuild after the remnants of Hurricane Helene swept through the region last fall. This week, lawmakers approved an amendment by Youngkin to extend that relief to assist victims of the February flooding. 

“It’s important that we continue to collaborate at all levels of government to ensure that resources are deployed effectively and efficiently,” Pillion added.

Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County, said he is grateful to the Trump administration for the approval of the disaster declaration. 

“I’m also grateful to Governor Glenn Youngkin and our entire Southwest Virginia legislative delegation for working with our federal partners to see this funding through to approval,” he said via email Friday. “So many homes and businesses were damaged in both Hurricane Helene and the February 2025 flood. Now we have access to these desperately needed funds.” 

Del. William Morefield, R-Tazewell County, said the news of the approval is encouraging. He said he remains hopeful that individual assistance will be approved eventually, as well. 

“In the event that individual assistance is not approved, the flood victims can rest assured knowing the commonwealth will be there to provide individual assistance as proposed in the state budget,” he said.

Morefield added that the federal assistance formulas for determining disaster aid are flawed, and he called on Congress to consider revising them. 

“I have heard some members of Congress speak about this on several occasions but I have yet to see any meaningful effort being made,” he said. “I commend President Trump, Governor Youngkin and our colleagues in the General Assembly for making every effort to help so many individuals with few resources help rebuild their lives.”

Tazewell County Administrator Eric Young said Friday that he’s grateful for any federal or state assistance.

“The one-two punch of the hurricane at the end of September and floods in early February truly taxed our resources and our energy,” he said.

The flooding and storms also affected neighboring states, particularly Kentucky and West Virginia. Kentucky’s disaster declaration was for public and individual assistance and was approved Feb. 24. West Virginia’s, for public assistance only, was approved Feb. 26.

The post Trump approves disaster declaration for Southwest Virginia communities hit by February flooding appeared first on Cardinal News.

Tens of millions of federal dollars for community projects will not be sent to Southwest and Southside Virginia, or anywhere in the state for that matter, this year. 

Congress passed a continuing resolution in mid-March to fund the government through September and avoid a shutdown, the third such measure in fiscal year 2025. That action will round out a full 12 months of federal funding through stop-gap measures for the fiscal year.

Federal funding that was negotiated in the House and Senate appropriations committees in 2024 for dozens of community infrastructure projects in Southwest and Southside Virginia was halted as a result. Those earmarks could have been included in a federal spending bill if Congress had adopted a budget for the 2025 fiscal year. 

“It is definitely disappointing,” said Lydeana Martin, the community and economic development director for Floyd County. The county had applied for federal money to help extend public utilities to undeveloped land just outside the Floyd town limits to enable more affordable housing to be built there. The county had applied for $1.5 million in federal money. 

“It’s very, very difficult to develop sites and housing that local workers can afford, especially because of our terrain in Floyd and the overall cost of land and development in Floyd,” Martin said. 

From $2 million that would have gone towards upgrades to the drinking water treatment facility in the town of Pound, to $1.6 million that would have gone towards revitalizing a blighted structure into a mixed-use community-focused facility in Danville, to $2.5 million that would have gone toward construction of a health care facility to serve Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, many localities and organizations are left wondering how to foot the bill for projects meant to improve their communities. 

A rundown of the different projects

Dozens of localities and organizations across Southwest and Southside Virginia applied to receive federal funding for community projects. 

Some of the projects with higher price tags include:

• $7 million requested for Virginia Coalfields Expressway Authority, for the phase II paving project of Corridor Q, U.S. 460 Connector.
• $5.5 million for Roanoke County to expand and pave the parking lot at McAfee Knob and to add restrooms, a shuttle stop and National Park Service signage.
• $4.7 million requested for New River Valley Emergency Communications Regional Authority for their Interoperable P25 Public Safety Communications System Project.
• $3 million requested for the Craig County Emergency Communications Project. 
• $2.75 million requested for the Town of St. Paul, safety building improvements.
• $2.5 million for the city of Lexington, the city of Buena Vista and Rockbridge County to construct a health facility to serve the region.
• $2.1 million for Goodwill Industries of the Valleys to develop a free public high school in Roanoke that provides adults with the opportunity to earn a high school diploma, access higher education and receive wraparound services such as food and child care support.
• $2 million for the Wise County Public Service Authority to upgrade drinking water infrastructure in Pound.
• $2 million requested for a multipurpose facility in Pennington Gap.
• $2 million requested for Virginia Tech to enhance nuclear reactor testing and safety.
• $1.8 million for Dickenson County to support communication infrastructure between first responders. 
• $1.6 million for Danville to revitalize a blighted structure into a mixed-use, community-focused facility with housing and an educational center. 
• $1.5 million for the Economic Development Authority of Floyd County to extend public utilities to an undeveloped area for affordable housing. 
• $1.1 million for the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission to extend the airport’s runway. 
• $1 million to help small businesses within Roanoke’s health and life sciences sector access specialized biotech equipment.
• $772,000 for the Martinsville-Henry County Coalition for Health and Wellness to expand access to medical, dental, and behavioral health services in Patrick County. 
• $683,000 for Lonesome Pine Community Hospital to purchase an Ion Lung Bronchoscopy machine at Norton Community Hospital and Black Lung Clinic. 

Dana Cronkhite, executive director of Dickenson County’s industrial development authority and the county’s economic development director, said the county’s need for funding to complete its project “remains critical.”

“Our current system leaves multiple areas of the county without reliable communication between first responders and dispatch, which includes several of the areas that experienced flooding in February,” she said.

Renee Burton, director of planning for Danville’s community development department, said it was anticipated that the federal money would cover the total cost to rebuild blighted property into a housing and education center. That project has been scrapped, for now, though the city may consider reapplying for federal funding next year. 

In Floyd County, the lack of federal funding has put the effort to extend utilities to develop affordable housing on hold indefinitely. 

“Extending at least public water (and ideally public wastewater) is a foundational piece to being able to do the project. So, no, we cannot move forward with water and sewer expansion until we find funding,” Martin said via email. “Like many small communities, our PSA [public service authority] struggles just replacing and maintaining an old system, so there aren’t resources for expansion.”

Roanoke County Administrator Richard Caywood said the county plans to apply again next year for money to pave and expand parking and add a waterless restroom to the McAfee Knob trailhead, a popular hiking spot that sees about 50,000 visitors a year. 

“We’re still somewhat in limbo,” Caywood said.

What do federal lawmakers think?

Funding for community projects has been included in federal budgets since the first Congress in 1789, with a pause between 2011 and 2021. That pause took place after it was discovered that members from both parties had used earmarks to benefit themselves, rather than the communities they served. After safeguards were put in place, Congress revived the process. 

Every time a new Congress is sworn in, the rules regarding earmarks, also known as congressionally directed spending, can change. The rules or limits regarding earmarks for fiscal year 2026 had not yet been determined by congressional leadership as of Wednesday. 

Different localities and community organizations were able to apply for federal funding in 2024 for projects to be included in the federal budget for fiscal year 2025. Dozens of those projects were accepted, pending the passage of a full budget. A number of applicants were notified at the beginning of March that it was unlikely that the funding requests would be included in the continuing resolution. 

“We were pleased in 2024 when we learned that our senators [Mark Warner and Tim Kaine] had fought hard to include this request in the Senate bill,” said Tom Carroll, Lexington’s city manager, about a funding request for a health care center to serve the Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County region. 

“With the new Congress only passing a Continuing Resolution last Friday [March 14], it is my understanding that this CDS [congressionally directed spending] is effectively dead, and we are very disappointed by this outcome.”

Carroll said the localities plan to move forward with the project, which costs roughly $10 million, and will reapply for federal funding again next year to alleviate some of the financial burden. 

Valeria Rivadeneira, spokesperson for U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., said that it is difficult to quantify the effect of the lack of spending included in the continuing resolution on a particular region given the “broad nature of these cuts.” She noted that a substantial portion of the $13 billion in non-defense spending that was “cut” in the continuing resolution came from the discontinuation of funding for local projects. 

Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, pushed back against that characterization. 

“While some FY2025 appropriations bills passed in the House of Representatives, which included earmarked projects, currently called ‘community funded projects,’ the U.S. Senate did not move to pass any of them,” Griffith said via email. “Because the U.S. Senate did not move on the House bills, no funding has been enacted or appropriated to agencies on FY2025 community-funded projects. Therefore, the CR that passed Congress last week could not cut funding from these projects.”

In simpler terms: Money for community projects was simply not included in the full year of continuing resolutions passed by Congress for 2025. Rivadeneira argued that House Republicans acted alone and without input from their Democratic colleagues when drafting the continuing resolution. She said, because House Republicans chose to “go at it alone,” that they are responsible for the lack of funding for these projects. 

“We had done all of this work on these community projects and they just struck all of them,” through the lack of inclusion, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said during a roundtable event in Roanoke on March 21. “In Democratic districts, Republican districts, any kind of project, they struck all of them.”

“I’m really disappointed,” Kaine said. “A lot of folks who felt good that we were able to get them commitments now have to postpone for a year, which is very unfortunate.”

The office of U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt County, did not respond to a request for comment. Cline sits on the House Appropriations Committee. 

In a statement after the continuing resolution was passed, Griffith said that the stripped-down spending bill would deliver critical funding to border enforcement authorities and will help President Donald Trump to carry out his effort to make “government work more efficiently.”

“Hopefully, both the House and the Senate will support bills this year that appropriate funds in the regular order and include community-funded projects,” Griffith said when asked about the lack of inclusion of those projects in the continuing resolution. 

What’s next for these projects and communities?

Some localities and organizations are moving forward with the projects without the federal money. 

The Roanoke Regional Airport Commission chose not to factor in the $1.1 million it requested from the federal government into the airport’s plan to extend its runway. That money would have helped to reduce reliance on aviation funds to secure property for the extension, airport spokesperson Alexa Briehl said. 

Goodwill Industries of the Valleys opted to make cuts elsewhere in its project, a high school for adults opening this year, without the federal money. 

“We are proceeding with the Excel Center even without the $2.1 million in federal funding,” said Chelsea Moran, spokesperson for Goodwill Industries of the Valleys. “However, the school will have reduced capacity for students and staff positions.”

Brad Boettcher, Roanoke’s innovation administrator, said the city opted to hold off on buying highly specialized biotech equipment, which is what the $1 million in federal money would have gone toward. The city plans to move forward with the rest of the project. 

Doug Janz, a spokesperson for Ballad Health, said the health system will be able to purchase a new Ion robotic bronchocopy machine for the Norton Community Hospital’s Black Lung Clinic without the federal money, because the project is self-funded. 

Others have opted to try again next year while looking elsewhere for other funding sources. 

Dickenson County officials are looking into various funding routes, while they plan to apply for congressionally directed spending again for the fiscal year 2026. Funding at the local level for communication infrastructure for first responders is extremely limited, Cronkhite said.

Brittany Anthony, a spokesperson for Connect Health + Wellness, said that the federal money would have helped to renovate and expand the current clinic’s space to serve more people in Patrick County. Without that money, the Patrick Springs clinic remains open, but, Anthony said, the clinic has begun to explore other funding opportunities to support renovations and increase capacity.

And some have considered multiple different approaches. 

Cody McElroy, executive director of the Wise County Public Service Authority, said that the county has been working with the town of Pound to upgrade the water and wastewater systems since 2021, when those utilities were consolidated. 

None of the money the county requested for fiscal year 2025 was received, and it would have made up about 15% of the total price of the project. McElroy said the county and the town will have to scale the work back a bit to make up the shortfall, but it may also apply for federal funding again in fiscal year 2026. 

The post Dozens of community projects halted after federal funding was omitted from Congressional stop-gap spending bill appeared first on Cardinal News.

Jason Myers-Benner wants answers. Most of the time, the Virginia farmer feels “unsettled” by the lack of communication and clarity surrounding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s funding freeze. During the quieter moments he’s spent staring at an empty inbox, awaiting word about his pending grant, he’s felt “disgusted” by how the government has treated him and many of his peers.

“It’s a sort of powerlessness, that it doesn’t feel like there’s anything that I can do about it,” said Myers-Benner. “Like, can you count on these systems or not?” 

Myers-Benner owns a family-run six acre farm in Keezletown, Virginia. Last spring, the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded him a little more than $18,000 to support the farm’s work breeding winter peas that could increase soil’s ability to trap carbon. The grant is through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, or SARE, which has supported farmer-led research initiatives nationwide for decades. The money represented an opportunity to expand work he and his family have been bootstrapping for years, growing crops that help feed lower-income, rural communities like his while preserving the planet.

Then, in late January, the Trump administration began freezing funds for programs across a broad swath of the government. Shortly after, his SARE representative at the University of Georgia fell silent. That’s when he started to worry: Without the grant, which reimburses expenses already incurred, he would need to line up part-time work to pay the bills. “There’s just a deflated feeling of ‘Okay. We were just about getting this rolling,’” he said. “And then … one change at the top has the potential to just completely wipe that out. And so we’ll have to pick up and hard-scrabble our way through it.” 

Myers-Benner finally got an answer on Monday, though one riddled in ambiguity. “You may continue your research or you are welcome to put your research on hold given the uncertainty of the situation, and once we learn more we can communicate that to you,” he was told by email, which he shared with Grist. “If this situation delays your research and outreach per your grant timeline we can offer a no-cost extension if you still have monies left in your budget. Feel free to reach out with any questions. If you decide to hold your project let us know so we can note that in your files. That’s about the best information we can provide at this time while we wait to receive further guidance from USDA.”

The USDA administers SARE through four regional offices hosted in universities. Daramonifah Cooper, a spokesperson for Southern SARE at the University of Georgia, which oversees Myers-Benner’s grant, told Grist it is holding all calls for proposals until it hears from its federal funding source. When asked, Cooper could not clarify the funding status for grants already awarded.

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Since late January, the USDA has frozen, rescinded, or cancelled funding supporting everything from donations to food banks to climate-smart agricultural practices. The move aligns with the administration’s goal of rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates and climate benchmarks. These steps prompted the termination of thousands of federal employees before courts intervened, pressuring the USDA to reinstate many of them, albeit temporarily, and federal judges have repeatedly ordered the administration to release gridlocked funds. Such abrupt and sweeping moves by the agency, and wider administration, have thrown the world of publicly-funded agricultural research into a tailspin. 

A USDA employee, whom Grist granted anonymity to protect them from retaliation, said “basically all” of the agency’s programs that fund agricultural research, including SARE grants, have been put on standstill due to the freeze. This person called the environment within the agency “a shitshow” and said, “It’s all really unknown right now. Even internally.” 

“We know that, yeah, things have been paused. Some political appointee at some level is reviewing our calls for proposals” this person added. “We know that DOGE is in the system, reviewing, doing searches of our databases, but we don’t know like … are they going to massively cut things right now? Things are on hold. But is the shoe gonna drop, and is lots of stuff getting canceled?” 

“Trump doesn’t really care about farmers or delivering services or efficiency or cost-savings. This is all politics. And we’re caught in the middle of it.”

At least 19 university labs have ceased agricultural research work because the Department of Government Efficiency dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development in February, a move one federal judge said may be unconstitutional. These decisions by the administration have impacted research programs nationwide. 

Kansas State University shut down two labs that were developing drought-resilient varieties of wheat and sorghum crops and pest-resistant plants. Johns Hopkins, the largest university recipient of federal research funding, cut roughly 2,200 jobs. USDA staffing cuts forced a federal project in Maryland investigating unprecedented managed honeybee losses to ask others to carry on its work. Seed and crop research being conducted across the nation’s network of gene banks have also been hobbled by layoffs and grant application suspensions, and grape breeding programs and work on crops affected by wildfire smoke in California have reported disruptions. The administration then announced an abrupt withdrawal of millions in federal funds for multiple universities, triggering a new round of layoffs, lab closures, and project suspensions across the country.

The federal government provides roughly 64 percent of the country’s public agricultural research and development funding. “With federal funding, especially research dollars, being on the chopping board for the current administration, the consequences of that, coupled with layoffs … means that at a time when we need innovation the most to deal with climate change, to make our food systems more resilient, that capacity is going to be lost,” said soil scientist Omanjana Goswami of the nonprofit the Union of Concerned Scientists. 

There will likely be economic fallout, too. A study published March 11 finds that the compounding effects of climate change and lagging investment in research and development has U.S. agriculture facing its first productivity slowdown in decades. 

The researchers modelled the eroding effects of climate change on American agriculture and the decades-long stagnation of spending for publicly funded research and development, using the estimates to quantify the research investment necessary to avoid agricultural productivity declining through 2050. To offset an imminent climate-induced productivity slowdown, federal agricultural research spending, which includes expenditures from every USDA agency except the U.S. Forest Service, and state agricultural experiment stations and schools, must replicate the unprecedented boom in public spending that followed both world wars. The government currently allocates approximately $5 billion annually to ag research and development, a figure that grew less than 1 percent annually from 1970 to 2000 before leveling off. Adding at least $2.2 billion per year to that tally would offset the climate-induced slowdown, the paper found.

If the current investment trend doesn’t change, the costly impacts of warming, including higher inputs, reduced yields, and supply chain shocks, will result in lower productivity, leading to more government bailouts and increased U.S. reliance on other countries for food, said Cornell University climate and agricultural economist Ariel Ortiz-Bobea. Without action, agricultural productivity is estimated to drop up to 12 percent with each passing year by 2050. This will cost the U.S. economy billions annually. American farms contributed roughly $222.3 billion to the economy in 2023 alone. 

“This is like a double whammy. They’re both human-caused, inflicted wounds. One because we’re failing to invest in R&D, the other because we’re emitting so much that it is actually slowing down productivity itself. So it’s like it’s being compressed from both sides,” said Ortiz-Bobea, who led the new study. 

Experts worry that the Trump administration is heading in the wrong direction with its layoffs, funding freezes, and efforts to roll back scientific initiatives. House Republicans, for example, have been pushing to cut some $230 billion in agriculture spending over 10 years. Millions of dollars in reductions to the USDA’s research, inspection, and natural resources arms were included in the funding stopgap bill Trump signed March 15. 

Most of the foundational agricultural research that happens in the United States is through some kind of USDA funding mechanism. The USDA is made up of multiple agencies and offices with their own research pipelines that support universities, nonprofits, businesses, farmers, ranchers, and foresters, among others. SARE grants are one of the ways the wider agency has funneled money into agricultural research conducted on farms nationwide, awarding nearly $406 million across 8,791 initiatives from its inception.

Jon Kasza runs an organic vegetable farm in New York’s Hudson Valley and relies on SARE funds to conduct his agricultural research. He doesn’t understand why the agency is still freezing that funding, given all of the administration’s promises to put farmers first. “I can’t say enough about how fragile it all looks to me,” said Kasza. He’s thinking about the excessively volatile bouts of rain that battered his fields in summer of 2023, followed by a smattering of dry periods last year that dried his soil so much he couldn’t plant his cover crops on-time in the fall. That’s where research grants like SARE, which he said allow farmers to bypass the typically “sluggish” timelines of conventional scientific trials to develop things like drought-resistant crop varieties, are critical. 

In November, he submitted his first SARE grant proposal of nearly $30,000 to grow multiple varieties of rice on hillsides in raised beds with biodegradable plastic mulch to conserve water and expand where the crop can be produced. Earlier this year, he was notified by a regional representative that the grant had been approved. “We’re moving forward as if some of the funding is going to be there, but we know that that’s uncertain,” said Kasza, who called the messaging surrounding the freeze a “rollercoaster” of confusion. A local land conservation group has promised to step in to save about 20 percent of the project if federal funding falls through. Still, that is “not nearly enough” to complete the work, he said.

“It’s already hard enough just to have an agricultural business, but then to have climate change as a factor on top of that, and then have this administration who’s wreaking havoc?” he said. “Cutting research, particularly our farmer-driven research, off at the knees, just seems like such a silly and short-sighted thing to do.”

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On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, another SARE grant recipient has also been stuck in limbo. Rancher Don Heacock spent decades working as an aquatic biologist for the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources before retiring and launching his nearly 40-acre farm in the late 1980s. Ever since, he’s raised a herd of water buffalo, grown crops like taro, and cultivated ponds of tilapia. He does it all with local food systems, soil health, and water conservation at the forefront, maximizing crop diversity, maintaining living roots in the ground year round, and integrating livestock farming. 

Up until now, Heacock had heard nothing about his pending SARE grant, a $59,000 funding proposal submitted last year to expand his farm’s agrotourism education, buffalo raising, and soil conservation work. Then, suddenly, late last week, he was told the proposal was denied. He believes that rejection is linked to the federal funding freeze.

After reaching out to SARE representatives for all four regions and the national arm of the program, Grist has learned that the USDA-NIFA has frozen funding for all pending grant applications this fiscal year, which began in October. When asked, a national spokesperson confirmed those funds were still “under review” while regional representatives told Grist that all new calls for proposals have been paused as a result. None of the representatives specified a timeline for when those funds were disbursed nor whether already-awarded grant funding will be released. 

For farmers like Heacock, the stakes of the administration grounding agricultural research initiatives like his is far bigger than the work happening on one lone project or farm. “Trump has got it all wrong. Climate is a real issue and it’s hitting us right in the face,” he said. “If we don’t become sustainable real quick, we’re dead in the water.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Farmers are reeling from Trump’s attacks on agricultural research on Mar 25, 2025.

When the Trump administration first announced a freeze on all federal funding in January, farmers across the country were thrust into an uncertain limbo. 

More than a month later, fourth-generation farmer Adam Chappell continues to wait on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reimburse him for the $25,000 he paid out of pocket to implement conservation practices like cover cropping. Until he knows the fate of the federal programs that keep his small rice farm in Arkansas afloat, Chappell’s unable to prepare for his next crop. Things have gotten so bad, the 45-year-old is even considering leaving the only job he’s ever known. “I just don’t know who we can count on and if we can count on them as a whole to get it done,” said Chappell. “That’s what I’m scared of.” 

In Virginia, the funding freeze has forced a sustainable farming network that supports small farmers throughout the state to suspend operations. Brent Wills, a livestock producer and program manager at the Virginia Association for Biological Farming, said that nearly all of the organization’s funding comes from USDA programs that have been frozen or rescinded. The team of three is now scrambling to come up with a contingency plan while trying not to panic over whether the nearly $50,000 in grants they are owed will be reimbursed. 

“It’s pretty devastating,” said Wills. “The short-term effects of this are bad enough, but the long-term effects? We can’t even tally that up right now.” 

In North Carolina, a beekeeping operation hasn’t yet received the $14,500 in emergency funding from the USDA to rebuild after Hurricane Helene washed away 60 beehives. Ang Roell, who runs They Keep Bees, an apiary that also has operations in Florida and Massachusetts, said they have more than $45,000 in USDA grants that are frozen. The delay has put them behind in production, leading to an additional $15,000 in losses. They are also unsure of the future of an additional $100,000 in grants that they’ve applied for. “I have to rethink my entire business plan,” Roell said. “I feel shell-shocked.”

Within the USDA’s purview, the funding freeze has targeted two main categories of funding: grant applications that link agricultural work to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and those enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act, which earmarked more than $19.5 billion to be paid out over several years. Added to the uncertainty of the funding freeze, among the tens of thousands of federal employees who have lost their jobs in recent weeks were officials who manage various USDA programs.

Following the initial freeze, courts have repeatedly ordered the administration to grant access to all funds, but agencies have taken a piecemeal approach, releasing funding in “tranches.” Even as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior have released significant chunks of funding, the USDA has moved slowly, citing the need to review programs with IRA funding. In some cases, though, it has terminated contracts altogether, including those with ties to the agency’s largest-ever investment in climate-smart agriculture. 

In late February, the USDA announced that it was releasing $20 million to farmers who had already been awarded grants — the agency’s first tranche. 

According to Mike Lavender, policy director with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, that $20 million amounts to “less than one percent” of money owed. His team estimates that three IRA-funded programs have legally promised roughly $2.3 billion through 30,715 conservation contracts for ranchers, farmers, and foresters. Those contracts have been through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. “In some respects, it’s a positive sign that some of it’s been released,” said Lavender. “But I think, more broadly, it’s so insignificant. For the vast majority, [this] does absolutely nothing.”

A week later, USDA secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the agency would be able to meet a March 21 deadline imposed by Congress to distribute an additional $10 billion in emergency relief payments.

Then, on Sunday, March 2, Rollins made an announcement that offered hope for some farmers, but very little specifics. In a press statement, the USDA stated that the agency’s review of IRA funds had been completed and funds associated with EQIP, CSP, and ACEP would be released, but it did not clarify how much would be unfrozen. The statement also announced a commitment to distribute an additional $20 billion in disaster assistance. 

Lavender called Rollins’ statement a “borderline nothingburger” for its degree of “ambiguity.” It’s not clear, he continued, if Rollins is referring to the first tranche of funding or if the statement was announcing a second tranche — nor, if it’s the latter, how much is being released. “Uncertainty still seems to reign supreme. We need more clarity.” 

The USDA did not respond to Grist’s request for clarification. 

Farmers who identify as women, queer, or people of color are especially apprehensive about the status of their contracts. Roell, the beekeeper, said their applications for funding celebrated their operations’ diverse workforce development program. Now, Roell, who uses they/them pronouns, fears that their existing contracts and pending applications will be targeted for the same reason. (Federal agencies have been following an executive order taking aim at “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs.”) 

“This feels like an outright assault on sustainable agriculture, on small businesses, queer people, BIPOC, and women farmers,” said Roell. “Because at this point, all of our projects are getting flagged as DEI. We don’t know if we’re allowed to make corrections to those submissions or if they’re just going to get outright denied due to the language in the projects being for women or for queer folks.”

The knock-on effects of this funding gridlock on America’s already fractured agricultural economy has Rebecca Wolf, senior food policy analyst at Food & Water Watch, deeply concerned. With the strain of an agricultural recession looming over regions like the Midwest, and the number of U.S. farms already in steady decline, she sees the freeze and ongoing mass layoffs of federal employees as “ultimately leading down the road to further consolidation.” Given that the administration is “intentionally dismantling the programs that help underpin our small and medium-sized farmers,” Wolf said this could lead to “the loss of those farms, and then the loss of land ownership.”  

Other consequences might be more subtle, but no less significant. According to Omanjana Goswami, a soil scientist with the advocacy nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, the funding freeze, layoffs, and the Trump administration’s hostility toward climate action is altogether likely to position America’s agricultural sector to contribute even more than it does to carbon emissions. 

Agriculture accounted for about 10.6 percent of U.S. carbon emissions in 2021. When farmers implement conservation practices on their farms, it can lead to improved air and water quality and increase soil’s ability to store carbon. Such tactics can not only reduce agricultural emissions, but are incentivized by many of the programs now under review. “When we look at the scale of this, it’s massive,” said Goswami. “If this funding is scaled back, or even completely removed, it means that the impact and contribution of agriculture on climate change is going to increase.”

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The Trump administration’s attack on farmers comes at a time when the agriculture industry faces multiple existential crises. For one, times are tight for farmers. In 2023, the median household income from farming was negative $900. That means, at least half of all households that drew income from farming didn’t turn a profit. 

Additionally, in 2023, natural disasters caused nearly $22 billion in agricultural losses. Rising temperatures are slowing plant growth, frequent floods and droughts are decimating harvests, and wildfires are burning through fields. With insurance paying for only a subset of these losses, farmers are increasingly paying out of pocket. Last year, extreme weather impacts, rising labor and production costs, imbalances in global supply and demand, and increased price volatility all resulted in what some economists designated the industry’s worst financial year in almost two decades. 

Elliott Smith, whose Washington state-based business Kitchen Sync Strategies helps small farmers supply institutions like schools with fresh food, says this situation has totally changed how he looks at the federal government. As the freeze hampers key grants for the farmers and food businesses he works with across at least 10 different states, halting emerging contracts and stalling a slate of ongoing projects, Smith said the experience has made him now consider federal funding “unstable.” 

All told, the freeze isn’t just threatening the future of Smith’s business, but also the future of farmers and the local food systems they work within nationwide. “The entire food ecosystem is stuck in place. The USDA feels like a troll that saw the sun. They are frozen. They can’t move,” he said. “The rest of us are in the fields and trenches, and we’re looking back at the government and saying, ‘Where the hell are you?’”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Slim margins, climate disasters, and Trump’s funding freeze: Life or death for many US farms on Mar 5, 2025.

The board of visitors of the Virginia Military Institute will not renew retired Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins’ contract as superintendent.

The move follows weeks of debate among Virginia lawmakers about whether Wins’ tenure should be extended or whether efforts to keep him were solely based on efforts to advance a diversity, equity and inclusion agenda. Wins is the first Black superintendent of the state-run military college, and was selected after allegations surfaced that racism plagued the Lexington campus.

Ten of the 16 board members who met for a special meeting Friday morning voted to remove Wins. There was no discussion of Wins’ employment or board members’ views during the board’s public session.

All 10 board members who voted against an extension for Wins were appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Among them were Jonathan Hartsock and Stephen Reardon, who were named Wednesday to replace Youngkin appointees rejected by the General Assembly.

Four of the six who voted in favor of extending Wins’ contract were Democratic appointees.

In response to questions about Wins’ ouster, Christian Martinez, Youngkin’s press secretary, said that the governor has consistently said that the board of visitors at VMI is “comprised of experienced individuals who both believe in the institute’s mission and would do what they believe to be in the best interest of this prestigious military college.”

Martinez said that Youngkin respects both the board’s authority and its decision. 

Wins attended the meeting, sitting at a conference table with the board members. He did not speak during the public session and did not visibly react as the vote was tallied. The meeting was livestreamed. 

Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt County, represents House District 37, where VMI is located. Austin said he didn’t know the details behind the board’s vote. 

“Everything he’s asked me to do has always been in the best interest of the institution,” Austin said of Wins during a phone interview Friday. “I just find him to be a very honorable and credible individual and I really enjoy my friendship and association with him, and I find it a great honor to represent VMI. I’m a huge proponent of that institution in the commonwealth of Virginia.” 

Austin had asked Wins to serve on the African American advisory panel for the VA250, a commission to celebrate the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. He said he has “no idea whatsoever” about who could or should take Wins’ place as the next superintendent of VMI. 

In a statement released Friday afternoon, the institute said Wins would complete his term ending June 30 and information about a search for a new superintendent would be provided at a later date.

“The BOV is supremely grateful to Major General Wins for his service to the Institute during some very difficult times,” VMI Board of Visitors President John Adams said in a statement. “The foundation he has provided us will ensure VMI continues to fulfill its vital mission of educating future leaders.”

Sen. Chris Head, R-Botetourt County, whose district includes VMI, did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment on Wins’ ouster. Neither Rear Adm. (Ret.) Terence McKnight or C. Ernest Edgar IV, both Youngkin appointees to the board who voted to keep Wins as superintendent, responded to an email requesting comment.

Wins, a VMI alumnus, was named interim superintendent in November 2020 and was formally appointed in April 2021. His contract expires June 30.

The superintendent has received several salary bonuses during his tenure and has been  credited with improving the atmosphere at the institute, which was found in a 2021 report to have widespread racism issues. That investigation was ordered by then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a VMI graduate.

Enrollment has also ticked upward as the institute has recovered from the dual challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and criticism of its campus culture.

“This decision by the VMI Board is not based on performance or character — it is purely political,” House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said in a statement Friday. “Over the past week, we have witnessed a systemic purge of high-ranking military leaders, including the recent firing of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair CQ Brown [by President Donald Trump].”

“The Board’s decision is a clear signal that VMI is choosing to move in the wrong direction, caving to political pressures rather than continuing on the path of necessary reform,” Scott added. 

Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, called the move “shameful” in a post on X on Friday afternoon.

Northam also weighed in. 

“Our country has purged too many patriotic military leaders this week, and now Virginia has done it too,” he said in a statement. “These are dark times.” 

“VMI needs to take a hard look and ask, how long will we cling to the past? If the institute wants to survive, it needs to start looking to the future. Time is running out,” he added. 

Both Scott and Northam are former military officers. 

Conservative alumni have rallied against Wins and VMI’s diversity, equity and inclusivity efforts, claiming that VMI has never had a problem with racism and that the school has gotten too soft on students, known as cadets. 

The Spirit of VMI, a political action committee founded in 2021 to “help restore VMI’s reputation as an elite leadership institution” has called itself “instrumental” in the selection process for several Youngkin appointees to the VMI board. 

The General Assembly voted during its session this winter to reject two Youngkin appointees endorsed by Spirit of VMI, alumni Quinton Elliott and Clifford Foster. The reasons for legislators’ rejection of the appointees was not made clear.

“The General Assembly should allow the Board to do its job without continuing to exert their political influence into a process that has been vested to the Board of Visitors by law,” the PAC said in a Feb. 24 email to its mailing list.

VMI board of visitors member Teddy Gottwald is the PAC’s top donor. He has contributed $50,000 since 2021.

The PAC has criticized Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Petersburg, claiming she has meddled in discussions about Wins’ tenure at the institute. Carroll Foy is a VMI alumna.

In a statement Friday, Carroll Foy noted Wins’ achievements during his time as superintendent. Wins increased state funding by 7%, reversed declining applications, drove major capital improvements, and boosted athletic and academic performance, she said. 

“Now, hyper-partisan MAGA Republican appointees have taken over the VMI Board with their political agendas. These dangerous political games destabilize VMI, and removing an outstanding leader in this unprecedented manner dishonors VMI’s legacy,” Carroll Foy added. 

The PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an additional statement issued Friday, Carroll Foy said she suspects the board of visitors may have already selected a replacement for Wins. She called on Youngkin to “support an independent expert investigation of the Board’s mishandling of the current situation.”

The post Amid furor over diversity efforts, VMI board ousts school’s first Black superintendent appeared first on Cardinal News.

The need to explore the effects of federal budget cuts on Virginians crystallized for House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott when a neighbor saw him outside of his house in early February, stopped him and asked, “What are you doing to protect us?”

His neighbor is an employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She became alarmed by new directives that had been handed down to employees since Jan. 20, when President Donald Trump took office, Scott said. 

“She said, ‘Y’all need to look into it now,’” he said during an interview Wednesday. 

Three days after the conversation with his neighbor, Scott, a Democrat from Portsmouth, called for the formation of a bipartisan emergency committee to study the potential effects of federal workforce and funding reductions on Virginia. On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees.

Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders since he was sworn in. He also formed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is led by Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire and advisor to the president who has not been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. 

Since its formation, DOGE has begun work to dismantle federal agencies, including USAID and the U.S. Department of Education — potentially with more in its sights. The Trump administration has also announced potential funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health and an effort to freeze all federal grants, which sent health care providers reeling. 

The possible statewide effect of federal funding cuts

“It’s fresh, to everyone, what’s happening at the federal level, and so I think it’s prudent of the speaker to look forward and prepare, but beyond that it’s kind of a guessing game right now to what’s truly going to happen,” Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham County, said. Wilt was one of 12 lawmakers tapped to serve on the emergency committee. “We really don’t know what we’re going to be facing as a state.”

Virginia is home to about 144,483 federal workers, according to a December report by the Congressional Research Service, and cuts to the workforce could have a wide reach beyond the northern part of the state. 

Rural school systems get a large portion of their funding from the state, and the biggest source of state funding is the income tax. The region in Virginia that generates the most income tax is Northern Virginia, accounting for about 40% of the state’s revenue. That means state-funded projects, from schools to roads to prisons, owe a large portion of their funding to the economic health of Northern Virginia. 

The emergency committee established by Scott on Feb. 4 is tasked with assessing the potential economic and budgetary consequences of federal cutbacks and providing policy recommendations to mitigate negative effects on Virginia’s families, economy and state budget.

“Right now, they’re taking a sledgehammer to everything. They’re not coming in a precise way, in a thoughtful way,” Scott said. “This committee is set up to really take a look at the facts, the hard data, the sobering boring facts, and let’s see if what we believe our thesis is, is true.”

That thesis, currently, is that when the federal government cuts federal jobs, or funding for health care, transportation projects, public education, agriculture and conservation projects, it hurts Virginia, Scott said. 

“I don’t want to be in a position where we are panicking,” he said. 

Virginia also ranks as the top state in the nation for federal contract awards, totaling $106 billion in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. 

The federal workforce reductions, which include a deferred resignation program aimed at cutting federal employment by up to 10%, and the mass termination of federal office leases could have significant repercussions for the state’s economy, particularly in Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads region, Scott’s office said in a statement. 

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget also issued a recent pause on the disbursement of federal funding, which could create funding gaps for essential services. Impacts could be felt in everything from infrastructure projects to social programs, Scott’s office said. 

“When you go out to Southwest, they’re going to be the ones hurting,” Scott said. “Some of the poorest communities that rely on these services, that we all pay taxes in to make sure that we take care of our most vulnerable communities, they’re in Southwest and Southside. … They’re going to get left further behind.”

The committee’s charge

“This is about ensuring that Virginia remains prepared and resilient in the face of federal policy shifts,” Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax County, who is slated to chair the emergency committee, said in a statement. 

“Our state budget must remain structurally sound, and we must take steps to protect our communities from sudden economic disruptions. The committee’s work will be critical in identifying ways to mitigate the effects of federal cuts while continuing to support Virginia families and businesses,” he continued. 

The 12-member committee will be tasked with:

• Collecting and analyzing data on the potential scope of workforce and funding cuts;
• Assessing the likely economic and budgetary impacts on Virginia;
• Engaging with stakeholders, including state agencies, businesses and nonprofits, to understand their concerns and gather mitigation strategies; and
• Providing policy recommendations for the 2026 General Assembly session to address the challenges posed by these federal reductions.

“We work together, we collaborate and we look at what needs to be done in the commonwealth and we try to come up with good policy ideas and decisions,” Del. Ellen Campbell, R-Rockbridge County, said regarding the bipartisan work before the committee. 

Campbell has worked on a number of bipartisan special committees, including the Rural Healthcare Committee that was established in 2024, the Behavioral Health Commission and the Early Childhood Education Commission. She noted that the charge of the emergency committee, as it stands before its first organizational meeting, which will need to take place before May 1, is pretty “broad brush.”

Members of the committee plan to travel across the commonwealth, not just to Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads but to the Southwest and Southside regions of the state. It is expected to produce a final report with findings and recommendations by Dec. 15. 

Scott noted that there could be some good to come of the federal shakeup, but he said that guardrails need to be in place. From a state budgetary standpoint, lawmakers need to be responsible and prepare for federal funding cuts, he said.

“We have to be ready because our constitution requires a balanced budget, so we have to see what the feds are going to do,” he said. “We may have to come back for a special [session] and shave a lot of stuff out of our budget.”

The post Federal cuts could affect all of Virginia — a new committee hopes to determine how appeared first on Cardinal News.

Moments after the U.S. presidential election was called for Donald Trump last November, Ellie Picard knew that she had to act.

As a transgender woman and co-founder of The Beautiful Idea, a queer bookstore and market located on the Downtown Mall, Picard wanted to prepare for the slew of anti-LGBTQ+ changes that Trump promised during his campaign. His proposals included “keeping men out of women’s sports,” banning taxpayer funding for sex-change surgeries and stopping taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition.

“It’s time to start planning in earnest for how we provide for all of our community’s needs,” said Picard. “Especially for trans folks, we’re going to be the target of some nonsense.” 

Trump’s return to power prompted Picard and other members of Charlottesville’s LGBTQ+ community to mobilize. Blake Walker, a transgender woman who serves on the board of the Charlottesville Gender Expansive Network, was among them.

“In the immediate wake of the election, I felt compelled to sidestep the pit of despair and channel my frustration into something productive,” Walker said in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow. 

Soon after the election, Walker contacted Picard and The Beautiful Idea’s other owners – Joan Covatch, Senlin Means and Dylan West – about creating a space that would be a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community. The idea appealed to Picard, who, when opening The Beautiful Idea in 2023, had imagined such a space.

Within three months of discussing what the facility could look like and gathering feedback from potential patrons, Picard, Walker and others leased a building at 801 West Main St. Formerly a Kicks Unlimited sneaker store, the space is now the Rivanna Area Queer Center, a community and social space intended for LGBTQ+ people in Charlottesville and surrounding areas.

With construction of the center and its plans for opening still underway, some of the reasons behind its creation have dominated national and local news. 

On his first day of office, Jan. 20, President Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government will only recognize two sexes: male and female. On Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order barring transgender women and girls from participating in female sports in federally-funded schools and universities, according to the White House. 

Meanwhile, the Virginia General Assembly has seen its own set of anti-LGBTQ+ bills during this year’s session. Ten bills targeting transgender youth and individuals have all failed on the General Assembly floor, many of which involved banning minors from receiving gender-affirming medical procedures, prohibiting transgender girls from playing in sports, and allowing healthcare officials to deny care to patrons who are transitioning, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, a research organization that tracks bills involving transgender and gender-expansive individuals. 

In Charlottesville, UVA Health said Jan. 31 that it would pause any kind of gender-affirming care for individuals under 19 years of age following an executive order from President Trump and guidance from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. Miyares warned UVA Health that they would be at risk of losing critical funding, such as money from Medicare and Medicaid programs. On Feb. 13, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order, and UVA Health resumed care that was previously paused.

Fighting such legislation and policies remains at the center of why Picard, Walker and other queer people in the area decided to create the Rivanna Area Queer Center.

“Folks need a beacon of hope in the midst of all that noise,” said Walker. “Something to remind them that they are safe, loved and worth protecting.” 

Similar spaces in other localities are committed to offering support to the queer community as the nation debates legislation that could harm such people. 

Rev. Lacette Cross is executive director of Diversity Richmond, a bustling facility located near Interstate 95 that describes itself as “the hub for the LGBTQ+ community of Greater Richmond connecting people, partners and programs through our work as a catalyst, a voice, a place and a resource.”

Rev. Cross explained that establishing spaces such as the Rivanna Area Queer Center in Charlottesville is a reminder to people outside of the LGBTQ+ community — supportive or not — that queer people are not going anywhere.

“These spaces are so critically important in times like these, because they are a reminder that we exist, and that nobody can legislate our existence,” said Cross. “We’re here, and we’re a part of this city, this town, this country.”

In addition to Diversity Richmond, the Queer Center’s founders modeled the site after similar businesses in the state, such as the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center in Staunton, Lavender Lodge in Lynchburg and the Roanoke Diversity Center in Roanoke, said Picard. 

The Rivanna Area Queer Center founders want the site to be more than a place for people to hang out. Picard said the center plans to provide an apparel closet for people — such as those who are in the early stages of transitioning — to obtain free clothing. Inside the space, there will be three separate rooms, which Picard envisions having mental health providers and other LGBTQ+ groups use for queer-centered work. 

Fewer venues exist locally for queer communities 

The Rivanna Area Queer Center will not be the first dedicated space for the LGBTQ+ community in the city. However, such spaces have struggled to stay open over the last decade. 

Umma’s, a popular Japanese-Korean-American fusion restaurant that was considered to be a safe haven for queer people in the city, closed last September as the owners were set to move from Charlottesville.

The city also was once home to Impulse, a membership-based queer social club located on Emmett Street where Super Amanecer currently sits. Impulse  closed in 2020 after being in operation for seven years, according to a News Leader report. 

In 2017, the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review approved the demolition of Escafé, a restaurant that was frequented by queer people in the area, and the restaurant came down in 2018. Club 216, another gay club in the city, shut down in 2016. 

Despite the closures, other businesses, such as Firefly Restaurant and Game Room, have opened their doors for LGBTQ+ patrons and events. In addition, Out and About and Queerish Cville often serve as venues for events hosted by local residents or former queer establishments. 

As the Rivanna Area Queer Center’s founders prepare for its opening within the next two months, they are seeking input for community members who plan to make use of the facility. Bailey Pleasant, a 25-year-old transgender man, looks forward to having an established setting to meet other queer people rather than meeting them by happenstance. 

“I think there is a lot of value in finding other people that are like you and being able to be as true to yourself as you’re capable within that kind of company,” said Pleasant. 

The post A new social space for the LGBTQ+ community will open this spring in Charlottesville appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

The University of Virginia’s research funding has been reduced following nationwide cuts to “indirect cost” support by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a major source of federal funds for biomedical research. 

The cuts, led by the Trump administration, will impact everything from research and equipment to some staff positions.

In addition to awarding grants that fund scientific research, the NIH gives institutions that host the research projects a percentage to help cover infrastructure and maintenance expenses. These rates for “indirect costs” vary by institution and are negotiated with the NIH.

The NIH said on Feb. 7 that funding for indirect costs will now be set at 15% for all grantees. 

This rate will replace any individual rate negotiations by UVA or other recipients, starting Monday, Feb. 10, according to an email sent by UVA’s office of the Vice President for research  and signed by Executive Vice President and Provost Ian Baucom and Vice President for Research Lori McMahon.

“This news is concerning, and we are actively assessing the implications for research at UVA,” the email said.

On Feb 10, attorneys general representing 22 states filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to temporarily block this major policy change. Virginia was not among the plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit.

This cut could mean UVA’s funding for indirect costs was cut nearly in half compared to 2023. That year, NIH covered 29% of those expenses for the UVA School of Medicine, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR), a nonprofit that tracks such funding. While it remains unclear which UVA research programs will be affected, the email advised researchers to “continue to do your research (unless you are in receipt of a stop order).”

According to Baucom’s email, indirect cost funding covers, among other things, cutting-edge research laboratories, high-speed data processing, national security measures (such as export controls), patient safety protocols (such as human subject protections), radiation safety, hazardous waste disposal and personnel required for administrative and regulatory compliance work.

UVA and UVA Health spokespeople did not answer Charlottesville Tomorrow’s inquiry about the programs that might be affected.

While indirect cost funding is lower than direct cost funding — which covers staff salaries, graduate students and equipment and accounted for 71% of NIH funding to UVA medical school in the 2023 fiscal year, according to BRIMR — the cuts could still have a significant impact.

In the 2023 fiscal year, UVA received $198.5 million in NIH funding for both direct and indirect costs, according to BRIMR. Of that total funding for UVA, $174.2 million was awarded to the medical school.

According to UVA’s letter, while institutions like the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and others are working on their responses to the cuts, UVA is awaiting further clarity. In the meantime, it is encouraging all researchers, regardless of their funding agency, to continue training their PhD students and working with their postdocs.

“Be mindful of your spending against federal grants,” the letter advised.

The post Federal policy change hits UVA’s medical research funding appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Update 1:30 p.m. Feb. 5: This story has been updated with comments from Goodyear.

_________________

Goodyear plans 850 job cuts at its Danville plant, most which will take effect by the end of this year, the company said Tuesday.

The tire manufacturer said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it reached an agreement on Jan. 30 with the United Steelworkers union and approved a plan “to reduce the Company’s production capacity and production cost per tire in Americas.”

The 850 job reductions will include employees and contractors.

The steelworkers union represented about 1,800 Danville plant employees as of October, according to the Danville Register & Bee, which first reported the news of the job reductions.

The union’s local declined to comment on Wednesday. 

“Goodyear is committed to supporting those impacted associates through this transition,” the company said in a statement.

Goodyear declined to provide the total number of current employees at the facility.

The company said last month that it plans to “refocus” that plant toward producing aviation tires and conducting mixing operations, in which chemicals are combined to make rubber, and move the majority of its commercial tire production to other plants.

It said at the time that its goal was to “strengthen the Danville plant’s competitiveness and preserve as many jobs as possible.”

In the SEC filing, Goodyear said that it anticipates the reductions will cost it between $130 million and $140 million this year but will improve its operating income by $15 million this year and $65 million each year thereafter.

Danville City Manager Ken Larking said in a statement that the city will “work closely with state and regional partners to connect displaced employees with resources, including workforce training, job placement assistance, and support services.”

“Danville has proven time and again that we are a resilient community,” Larking said. “While this news is difficult, we remain committed to strengthening our local economy, attracting new investment, and creating opportunities for our workforce. We will continue working with Goodyear and our economic development partners to navigate this transition and support those impacted during this challenging time.”

Goodyear opened the Danville plant in 1966 and has been Danville’s largest private employer for years. During its first 50 years, the plant produced 100 million truck and aircraft tires, according to a city proclamation on its semicentennial anniversary.

Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear (NASDAQ:GT) is a multinational tire maker with 57 manufacturing facilities in 23 countries. It employs about 72,000 people worldwide.

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