{"id":60087,"date":"2025-03-27T16:45:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T20:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/?p=60087"},"modified":"2025-03-27T16:57:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T20:57:47","slug":"release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/","title":{"rendered":"Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contact: Laura Zaks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>press@sustainableagriculture.net<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tel. 347.563.6408<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Washington, DC, March 27, 2025<\/em> \u2013 Today, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-2), alongside others, introduced the <em>Honor Farmer Contracts Act of 2025<\/em> in response to the US Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) ongoing federal funding freeze, staff layoffs, and office closures. The bill would require USDA to unfreeze all signed contracts, make past due payments as quickly as possible, and prohibit USDA from canceling contracts absent a failure to comply with the terms of the contract. It would also prohibit USDA from closing county and field offices without justification to Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201c<em>During the last several months, countless farmers, and the community-based organizations who serve them, have had their livelihoods thrown into doubt as USDA has deliberated whether or not to honor its own legal contracts. From conservation and supply chain investments, to domestic market development and local food purchases, USDA\u2019s hesitation to honor contracts has destabilized rural and urban communities nationwide,\u201d <\/em>said <strong>Mike Lavender, Policy Director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)<\/strong>, adding that: <em>\u201cThe Honor Farmer Contracts Act unequivocally reiterates a bedrock principle &#8211; USDA must honor its word, and swiftly meet its legal obligations to farmers and organizations by immediately releasing funding on all signed contracts. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition thanks Senator Booker and all Members of Congress standing alongside farmers in asking USDA to honor its commitments.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The introduction of the Honor Farmer Contracts Act follows <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-unlawful-federal-funding-freeze-causing-confusion-and-harm-on-farms-and-in-communities-nationwide\/\">months of uncertainty<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/funding-freeze-impacts-farmers-and-organizations-speak-out\/\">widespread coverage<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-holds-briefing-as-usda-funding-freeze-and-layoffs-threaten-farmers-and-communities-nationwide\/\">mounting impacts<\/a>. For more resources and information, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/\">NSAC blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>###\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/\"><em>https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Laura Zaks National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition press@sustainableagriculture.net Tel. 347.563.6408 Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze Washington, DC, March 27, 2025 \u2013 Today, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-2), alongside others, introduced the Honor Farmer Contracts Act of 2025 in response to the US Department [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":60096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[126,166],"tags":[1805,1793,1806,1804,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-60087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-grants-and-programs","8":"category-press-releases","9":"tag-cory-booker","10":"tag-funding-freeze","11":"tag-gabe-vasquez","12":"tag-honor-farmer-contracts-act-of-2025","13":"tag-usda","14":"entry","15":"clb-has-post-thumbnail"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze - National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-2), alongside others, introduced the Honor Farmer Contracts Act of 2025 in response to the US Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) ongoing federal funding freeze, staff layoffs, and office closures. The bill would require USDA to unfreeze all signed contracts, make past due payments as quickly as possible, and prohibit USDA from canceling contracts absent a failure to comply with the terms of the contract. It would also prohibit USDA from closing county and field offices without justification to Congress.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-2), alongside others, introduced the Honor Farmer Contracts Act of 2025 in response to the US Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) ongoing federal funding freeze, staff layoffs, and office closures. 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It would also prohibit USDA from closing county and field offices without justification to Congress.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/media-release-banner.png","twitter_creator":"@sustainableag","twitter_site":"@sustainableag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura Zaks","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/"},"author":{"name":"Laura Zaks","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#\/schema\/person\/652a20de343c04163f972a367607acce"},"headline":"Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze","datePublished":"2025-03-27T20:45:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-27T20:57:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/"},"wordCount":328,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/media-release-banner.png","keywords":["Cory Booker","Funding Freeze","Gabe Vasquez","Honor Farmer Contracts Act of 2025","USDA"],"articleSection":["Grants and Programs","Press Releases"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/","name":"Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze - National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/media-release-banner.png","datePublished":"2025-03-27T20:45:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-27T20:57:47+00:00","description":"Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-2), alongside others, introduced the Honor Farmer Contracts Act of 2025 in response to the US Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) ongoing federal funding freeze, staff layoffs, and office closures. The bill would require USDA to unfreeze all signed contracts, make past due payments as quickly as possible, and prohibit USDA from canceling contracts absent a failure to comply with the terms of the contract. It would also prohibit USDA from closing county and field offices without justification to Congress.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/media-release-banner.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/media-release-banner.png","width":1200,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/release-nsac-commends-defense-of-farmers-amidst-ongoing-unlawful-contract-freeze\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Release: NSAC Commends Defense of Farmers Amidst Ongoing Unlawful Contract Freeze"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/","name":"National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition","description":"Supporting the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#organization","name":"National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition","url":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/cropped-logo.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/cropped-logo.webp","width":303,"height":70,"caption":"National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sustainableag\/","https:\/\/x.com\/sustainableag"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/#\/schema\/person\/652a20de343c04163f972a367607acce","name":"Laura Zaks","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51fd31973dbf24eccc07fdd313fd8b3688c7790bee2ee09a947cb85d2f290191?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51fd31973dbf24eccc07fdd313fd8b3688c7790bee2ee09a947cb85d2f290191?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51fd31973dbf24eccc07fdd313fd8b3688c7790bee2ee09a947cb85d2f290191?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laura Zaks"},"url":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/blog\/author\/lzaks\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainableagriculture.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}