Farm Aid's Family Farm Disaster Fund

If you are a farmer dealing with disaster, please visit our Help for Farmers page.
If you would like to donate to the Family Farm Disaster Fund, please click here.

The Family Farm Disaster Fund was established by Farm Aid to help farm families survive weather-related disasters. Right now, we are working with farmers across the country who have been hurt by devastating flooding and severe weather in Iowa, Wisconsin and seven other mid-western states.

Farm Aid is helping family farmers through this disaster by:

Providing emergency funds for families to allow them to buy food and cover family living expenses. Through churches and service agencies operating in the region, Farm Aid ensures that the money goes to farm families most in need.
Supporting emergency hotlines which provide legal, financial and emotional counseling to struggling farmers.
Providing legal and financial counseling to farmers in danger of losing their farms. When farmers need help to avoid foreclosure due to losses from natural disasters, Farm Aid funded groups are there to help them save their farm.

Through workshops and public meetings, Farm Aid-funded groups educate farmers about available disaster assistance in each state. Donations to the Family Farm Disaster Fund will help Farm Aid directly address the needs of farms in crisis. Please help Farm Aid help them.

Donate to the Family Farm Disaster Fund>>

Latest Responses

Hurricane Ike

September 15, 2008
Hurricane Ike has hit and large swaths of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana were declared federal disaster areas on September 13. While major cities have received the lion's share of national attention, rural areas in both states have sustained substantial damage, and many farms and ranches are facing flooded crop and pastureland as well as evacuation or outright loss of livestock. According to some reports, Texas ranchers have already lost over 6,000 beef cattle.

Farm Aid is working with Louisiana Interchurch Conference, Southern Mutual Help Association and Lutheran Social Services of the South to assess damage and channel aid to farmers in the affected areas. We are also reaching out to the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (another Farm Aid funded group), which has established a hot line for producers in need of help.

Farm Aid will provide further updates in the days ahead.

Midwestern flooding

September 10, 2008
Family farmers throughout the Midwest received emergency assistance from Farm Aid following this summer's extreme flooding. Farm organizations in Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska and Missouri stepped in to contact and work with suffering farmers, and Farm Aid provided more than $57,000 in grants, which were distributed as emergency cash payments to family farmers. The last round of grants to the farm groups was made in mid-August, and those funds are now being distributed to farmers in need.

Here are the totals for the most recent grants:

Center for Rural Affairs, Nebraska — $12,050
Family Farm Defenders, Wisconsin — $7,500
Farmers Legal Action Group, Minnesota — $5,500
Hoosier Organic Marketing Education, Indiana — $7,500
Interchurch Ministries of Nebraska, Nebraska — $7,000
Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Missouri — $7,500

July 2, 2008
We are hard at work planning distribution of emergency flood assistance funds to farmers in five states: Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. We are working with support groups in each of those states, and soon will be announcing a second round of grants to farmers in distress.

June 20, 2008
Farm Aid emergency assistance is supporting local recovery efforts in Iowa and Wisconsin, delivering an initial $10,000 in disaster-relief funds to grassroots organizations. Since the Family Farm Disaster Fund was activated on Wednesday of this week, more than $40,000 has already been donated by individuals and organizations. As money is raised, Farm Aid’s focus is to quickly distribute money to affected areas, where it can best benefit farm families.

Farm Aid is supporting the disaster-relief efforts of the Iowa Grassroots Coalition, which includes Buy Fresh Buy Local Iowa, Center for Rural Affairs, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Iowa Farmers Union, Iowa Network for Community Agriculture, Iowa Organic Association, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Women Food and Agriculture Network, farmer and advocate Denise O’Brien, and Wendy Wasserman, editor of Edible Iowa River Valley. As more information is available about the impact of the flooding in states across the Midwest, Farm Aid will work with additional organizations to quickly get resources to family farmers in those states.

June 17, 2008
Devastating flooding in Iowa and Wisconsin and severe weather in seven other states is threatening the lives of family farmers. Farm Aid is preparing to provide significant help to the region. This morning our program department was on a call with farm groups in Iowa and neighboring states to create an action plan.