When Elmarie Brooks retired from the Starkville-Oktibbeha County Consolidated School District in 2017, it didn’t mean she was done helping her community.
She wanted to help feed people and keep them healthy, she told The Dispatch on Thursday, but despite growing up around a farm didn’t know enough of the trade to start herself. That’s where the Unlimited Community Agricultural Cooperative came in.
A local civic group that helps connect farmers new and old with the training they need to thrive, UCAC has grown since its 2013 inception from a small, self-funded cooperative into an organization with four employees, weekly meetings, regular events and more than $80,000 each year in training for local farmers.
“UCAC held my hand throughout the process,” Brooks said. “I’ve been able to learn so much about opportunities. How to take care of goats, how to purchase goats, they provided all of that training. They connected me with Alcorn State University’s three-year new farmer training, so that I’d know how to keep my records. … I’m 73 years old, and it’s given me the opportunity to learn and to do (new) things.”
That growth, however, is now in jeopardy. Oktibbeha County District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer, who also serves as UCAC’s president, said its reimbursement requests through its conservation of technical assistance contract with the United States Department of Agriculture haven’t gotten any response since January.
He said UCAC’s federal funding started in 2019, operating in two-year contracts with the federal government to reimburse roughly $80,000 in training services per year. That pays for guest speakers, hands-on training, educational materials and coordination work.
UCAC’s outreach focuses on underserved communities, but anybody that wants to learn is welcome.
Unless funding resumes, those activities could be forced to scale back, and UCAC could be forced to resume collecting its original membership fees of $150 up front and $10 each month to keep operating.
“A significant portion (of UCAC funding is from the USDA), probably around 90% right now,” Trainer said. “… We’d have to revert back to how it was at first, have our meetings once a month and find some fundraising idea to buy refreshments and maybe pay for some facilities and printing. … We’d try to retain (speakers) at no cost or little cost.”
Brooks already received the training she needed to start her own goat farm, today operating as Brooks Family Farm. But she’s still involved with UCAC to offer those skills to the next generation, with young men and women coming to her farm so she can show them the ropes. She said that without federal grants, her business may not continue to participate.
“I have a young lady right now that’s interested in goat farming who I’m mentoring,” she said. “I want to give her the training opportunities I had, that that funding allowed me to go through. … It’s awful that she might not get the opportunities I got that my parents didn’t have when they were farmers.”
Sylvester Adams is another UCAC member, a more recent addition from 2021 that today helps UCAC with education and new technologies from the goat farm PJ4 Farm in West Point. He told The Dispatch he might not have joined if the organization had required him to pay hundreds of dollars to be a member.
“The organization’s commitment is to help assisting retiring farmers in preserving their legacies,” he said. “… Should UCAC be compelled to significantly scale back its operations, the repercussions for the community could be substantial. Farmers might lose access to essential resources, training, and support networks that are crucial for their success and sustainability. The absence of such cooperative support could hinder the adoption of best practices, reduce market access, and increase operational costs for individual farmers, potentially jeopardizing the viability of small farms in our area.”
The USDA, for its part, confirmed that it’s conducting a review of its expenses, but declined to specify the status of UCAC’s funding or give a timeline for when that review might be complete.
“(USDA) Secretary (Brooke) Rollins understands that farmers are the best stewards of the land, and we are reviewing this funding accordingly to ensure taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are supporting real conservation efforts, not bureaucratic excess,” a spokesperson said in a statement to The Dispatch. “As part of this effort, Secretary Rollins is carefully reviewing all funding and will provide updates as soon as they are made available. This includes funding for some cooperative agreements.”
Trainer didn’t seem particularly worried that the funding would be cut altogether before UCAC’s contract ends in 2026, though the delays do risk affecting its operations. He said the organization would “most certainly” need to tap into the line of credit it saves for emergencies.
Brooks said she just wants to know that the future of farming in Oktibbeha is secure once more.
“(My parents) had to pay out of pocket and now it’s rotating back again, people of color and minorities are having to suffer because some people decided they don’t deserve it,” she said. “…It’s very unfair. I’m praying there’s some way it stops so we can continue our work with farmers, to educate farmers, to pass on generational wealth to our children and grandchildren.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
