Published in Fall 2024
The 2023 Oregon Legislature allocated $2.65 million to the Oregon Community Food Systems Network (OCFSN) for the Farmer & Rancher Disaster Resilience Grant Program for the 2023-2025 Biennium. The first round of this program closed May 2024 awarding a total of $1.6 million to 114 small and historically underserved farmers and ranchers across Oregon to implement projects to increase their resilience to disasters like extreme weather, heat, smoke and drought.
This summer and fall, producers from across the state are implementing irrigation, shading, cooling, soil health and other resilience projects funded through this program.
As one awardee puts it, “The survival of our farm – and that of countless others grappling with climate disasters – is at stake. Farming has never been easy, but climate change is making it exponentially harder every year. These grant funds offer small, under-resourced farms like ours a critical opportunity to make strategic investments so we can adapt towards greater resiliency. We tip our hats to the Oregon legislature for allocating these urgently needed funds to support local and regional food systems, small family farms, and diversified, climate-forward agriculture in our state.”
This Grant Program builds on the successful OCFSN 2022 Farmer and Rancher Disaster Relief Program and was created with guidance from farmers and ranchers, farmer supporting organizations and OSU extension experts from across Oregon.
The final 1 million dollars will be granted in the second round of the program that will open in fall/ winter of 2024/2025 and program details and requests for proposals will be found on the Farmer & Rancher Disaster Resilience Grant Program website (https://ocfsn.org/disaster-resilience-grant).
Outcomes and awardee demographics from the first funding round include:
- 110 applications awarded in English
- 4 applications awarded in Spanish
Historically Underserved Producers Awarded
- 41 - Black, indigenous or people of color producers
- 11 - Immigrant or refugee producers
- 8 - Single caregiver producers
- 7 - Trans or gender non-conforming producers
- 39 - Producers located in counties with a drought declaration in 2022 or 2023
- 13 - Military veteran producers
- 89 - Beginning farmers and ranchers (first 10 years of farming)
Location of Awardees
- 39 - Willamette Valley
- 21 - Portland Metro
- 20 - Southern Oregon (includes Klamath and SE Oregon)
- 13 - Central Oregon
- 8 - Northeast Oregon
- 7 - Mid Columbia
- 5 - North Coast
- 3 - South Coast
Total Area
- Total cultivated acres of awarded farms - 4,765.92 acres
Number of Disaster Resilience Projects by Category (many awardees had multiple project types)
- 71 - Irrigation and Water Efficiency
- 50 - Shading and Cooling
- 40 - Soil Health Management
- 32 - Purchase, Rental or Refurbishment of Equipment
- 19 - Other Crop Management
- 15 - Other
- 14 - Ecosystem Management
- 3 - Monitoring or Research
- 2 - Planning
OCFSN and partners are grateful to have the opportunity to manage this program. And we send our thanks to all the farmers, ranchers, organizations, agencies and the State Legislature for their participation and support for this grant program to improve on-farm resiliency for Oregon’s small and historically underserved producers.
What is OCFSN?
The Oregon Community Food System Network (OCFSN) is a 501(c)(3) made up of a collaboration of nonprofit organizations and allies dedicated to strengthening local and regional food systems to deliver better economic, social, health, and environmental outcomes across the state. Folks can learn more, join our newsletter and working groups at https://ocfsn.org.