AUGUSTA — Shortly after the sun came up Wednesday, when he should have been watering his greenhouse peppers, Seth Kroeck climbed into his tractor and began a three-hour trek from his Brunswick farm to the Maine State House to protest federal funding cuts to Maine farmers.

Kroeck is still waiting to find out if the federal government will honor his agricultural contract to mulch the 70 acres of blueberries he is growing at Crystal Spring Farm to protect the crop from climate change, or if he will have to eat the $6,000 he’s already spent buying wood chips and outfitting a truck.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Kroeck told the boisterous, flannel-clad crowd of 150 who joined him for the rally. “We work hard. Our hands are dirty. We have all built an exceptional local food economy. We cannot let two months of executive actions and dillydallying destroy this community.”

Recent U.S. Department of Agriculture funding, program and staffing cuts and a looming tariff war with nations that buy Maine farm products and sell fertilizer, seed and equipment to Maine farms is creating a climate of uncertainty in Maine’s struggling $870 million agricultural community.

Seth Kroeck, who rode his tractor to the rally from his Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick, speaks to supporters on Wednesday at the Maine State House in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Farmers astride tractors and livestock trailers rallied at the State House Wednesday to demand the U.S. Department of Agriculture honor $12 million in climate-related agriculture contracts it has not paid out and reinstate a local food program that provided $4 million to Maine schools and food pantries.

They also want the one out of five USDA staffers in Maine who have been laid off to get their jobs back.

They called for the revival of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program that would have paid $3 million out to Maine farmers to prepare for climate change. This program had just awarded $35 million to Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport to promote sustainable practices at 400 farms nationwide.

The scope of Maine’s agricultural losses under President Trump extends beyond these figures, according to Maine farmers. Numerous other vital programs that underpin the local food system are being targeted for cuts, including farm business planning, agricultural research and food safety inspections.

Alyssa Adkins, from Farthest Field Farm in Freeport, speaks to farmers at a rally on Wednesday at the State House. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Current funding delays put Maine farmers in a precarious position. They have to front the costs for work approved in their USDA contract, but now they are unsure if they’ll get their reimbursement at all, much less if they’ll get it in time to pay the bills for work they’d already commissioned.

“Our farmers have been directly targeted by the USDA cuts,” said Sarah Alexander, director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which helped organize the brigade. “We have farmers who haven’t known whether they can move forward or whether they can pay their mortgage or pay their bills.”

Steve Sinisi of Durham is waiting to hear if he will be reimbursed for the solar installation project he was approved to do at Old Crow Ranch, his pasture-based beef cattle, hog and chicken farm. He has put down deposits for the work and already paid someone to prepare the field.

“We have no clue what’s coming down,” said Sinisi, who made sure to be the first tractor in Wednesday’s brigade. “Some contracts are being paid. Some are under review. It’s one big-ass waiting game. and that doesn’t work. The world keeps going around. We’re hoping, but it doesn’t look good.”

Steve Sinisi, from Old Crow Ranch, speaks during a farmers rally on Wednesday at the Maine State House in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Sinisi had a message that he asked Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, to deliver to USDA Commissioner Brooke Rollins and President Donald Trump: a bucket full of hog poop. He likened it to their promise to do right by farmers while at the same time slashing federal agriculture funding, programs and staff.

The Milkhouse Farm & Creamery in Monmouth is awaiting reimbursement for money spent installing a 27-kilowatt solar array to offset the cost of electricity needed to operate the 250-acre dairy, beef and hog farm, said co-owner Caitlin Frame. Among other markets, it supplies yogurt to eight school districts.

“Maine’s dairy farmers are not members of the financially insulated billionaire class,” Frame said. “We can’t operate without USDA loans or cost-sharing programs. Unless this administration reverses course, we expect to see Maine farms and dairies being forced out of the industry.”

“Who is this working well for?” Frame asked. “Not working people. Not farmers.”

Maine’s wild blueberry farmers are being hit especially hard, said Nicholas Lindholm, owner of the Blue Hill Berry Co. in Penobscot. The frozen processed commodity market that most Maine blueberry farms sell into is paying 47% less than it was 20 years ago, he said – not even enough to cover annual expenses.

Climate change is making things even worse, Lindholm said. Local wild blueberry fields are warming up faster than any other agricultural ecosystem in Maine, he said. And they are hit hard by the wild fluctuations between droughts and torrential downpours.

Rally attendees listen to speeches during a farmers’ rally on Wednesday at the Maine State House in Augusta. After farmers and agricultural vehicles paraded to the plaza between the State House and Cross Building, speakers called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release funds that had been frozen by the Trump administration. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

But the University of Maine found a solution: spreading wood chips on his fields reduces the effects of excessive heat, moisture and even some diseases, Lindholm said. He has used USDA funds to mulch his fields since 2021, but this year’s $87,000 mulching contract remains in limbo, he said.

“If you’re a Maine resident concerned about this iconic Maine crop, wild blueberries, then I encourage you to stand up to your congressional representatives, to the USDA, and let them know the farmers need this funding. It’s proven. There’s no reason to take it away.”

Alyssa Adkins, a third-year Freeport farmer, is worried one USDA conservation grant will be canceled and tens of thousands already spent on two other USDA grants won’t get reimbursed. These are grants they needed to survive Maine’s increasingly erratic weather conditions, Adkins said.

“Starting a farm now means starting when the weather is no longer predictable,” Adkins said. “Because of this, we are responsibly building our farm with an eye toward resiliency so that we can keep growing food for Maine under even under the worst conditions. But passion doesn’t pay the bills.”

It wasn’t all bad news. Kevin Leavitt told the crowd that he had finally gotten the $45,000 check that he had been promised to reimburse him for the cost of installing a solar array at his organic vegetable farm in West Gardiner.  But the waiting almost bankrupted him, Leavitt said.

“They wanted to hold us hostage and they wanted us to kiss the ring,” Leavitt said to a chorus of boos. “I’m happy to say that we finally have been reimbursed, but we’re still worried about everything that’s going on.

Rep. Chellie Pingree speaks on Wednesday at the Maine State House in Augusta. The event started with people marching and a parade of over 20 tractors and other agricultural vehicles. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

President Trump’s cost-cutting orders were announced in January when the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo requiring agencies to identify and pause funding to programs that violated Trump’s executive orders on topics ranging from foreign aid to “woke ideology” and the “green new deal.”

When canceling the Climate-Smart Commodities program this week, a USDA statement called the Biden initiative a “slush fund” with “sky-high administration fees” that often spent less than half of the federal funding on farmer payments. It did not cite any specific examples to back up this allegation.

In February, after the first federal judge ordered the government to make good on its payments, a USDA spokesman said the agency would comply with the court order after completing its review. It has offered farmers the chance to revise their grant applications to abandon climate and clean energy goals.

After consulting with MOFGA and congressional staff, most Maine farmers have not modified their grant applications, Alexander said. Federal courts continue to order Trump to release the funds — including an appeals judge from Rhode Island this week — but most Maine farmers have yet to be paid.

The agency did not respond to requests for an interview or details about Maine farm grants Wednesday.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Seth Kroeck’s name and the location of his farm.