Amid flooded fields, CT officials pledge support for farmers devastated by weather

Standing in front of a flooded field in South Glastonbury, top state officials pledged Monday to find money to help farmers whose crops have been devastated in recent days by flooding.

Gov. Ned Lamont and others said that farmers are facing difficult conditions as they try to recover from increasingly difficult weather conditions, including droughts, deep freezes and flooding. Most recently, torrential rains in Vermont contributed to major flooding in the Connecticut River valley, which led to marsh-like conditions at the farm where Lamont and others spoke Monday about the broader context of weather problems.

“What the hell is going on here?” Lamont asked the crowd that had gathered near the flooded fields. “We’ve got firefighters going up to Nova Scotia over the last month helping to put out the blazes there. We saw the effects of that in terms of the haze and fog and smoke. We’ve got rescue boats going up to Montpelier and Ludlow, Vermont, trying to rescue folks there who haven’t seen a flood like that in many a year. Look behind us. We were irrigating that a couple of months ago — desperate for water in the middle of a drought. And today, it’s Lake Wobegon. So what do you do?”

The short-term answer, Lamont said, is to get federal and state money quickly to small farmers in Connecticut.

That includes federal funding from a disaster declaration, which the state’s Congressional delegation is working to secure. It also includes money to be taken from an $8.8 million fund overseen by the state environmental department for impacts from climate change and the $150 million Boost Fund that is overseen by the state Department of Economic Development to help small businesses through low-interest loans.

“I want to say to our farmers, in particular: We love you,” Lamont told the crowd. “We needed you more than ever during COVID. Thank God we had food grown right here in Connecticut. … These farms go back hundreds and hundreds of years. They’re the heart and soul of what made Connecticut special.”

Lamont stood at the Killam and Bassette Farmstead on ground that had dried out in recent days. But the water was still surrounding various fields behind him.

The monetary damages from the flooding are still being calculated, but state agriculture commissioner Bryan P. Hurlburt said about 2,000 acres were flooded — costing millions of dollars. Connecticut has 5,500 small farms with 22,000 employees in a $4 billion industry. The water, in many cases, wiped out the inventory for the farm business — at a crucial time when they are selling their products at farm stands and other outlets.

“These challenges are becoming harder and harder for Connecticut farmers to deal with,” Hurlburt said. “We will be working together in an effort to support farmers through this. There’s a challenge with revenue flow. There’s a challenge with paying their loans back that we’re going to try to help them address.”

Consumers, he said, need to know that their food is safe.

“If the river water touched the crop, the crop is not going to be harvested,” Hurlburt said. “We want consumers to know that when they buy that fresh ear of sweet corn, that it is safe to consume.”

Knowing that farmers are under emotional and financial stress, state officials established a special website at CTfarmstressrelief.com with videos to help farmers dealing with anxiety.

Chris Bassette, owner of Killam and Bassette Farmstead, asked the general public to be mindful in the coming months about the difficult financial situation from the flooding.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Bassette said. “The prices might be a little bit higher because we are not producing as much as we normally do. Remember all your farmers. Don’t go to the grocery stores. Come and see us — and help us get through this. … We are still in debt from 2017, 2011. It takes us years to totally recoup from that.”

Another farmer, Billy Collins of Fair Weather Growers in Rocky Hill, comes from a family that has been farming for three generations and said the recent flooding reminded him of Hurricane Irene in 2011 as the Connecticut River overflowed in southern Vermont and caused similar damage. About 300 acres were damaged, he said.

U.S. Rep. John B. Larson noted that the First Congressional District, which he represents, has been the hardest hit by the recent flooding. He has lived for the past 44 years next door to the Burnham family that has been farming along the Connecticut River in East Hartford since the 1640s and lost more than 160 acres recently.

“There is no harder-working family,” Larson said. “You see the work, the dedication that goes into farming that somehow we kind of celebrate as a romantic way of life” when it is actually difficult work.

“This demands our help,” Larson said. “It breaks my heart when people say ‘I don’t know how long I can continue this. I don’t know how much longer we can go on with this.”’

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he and others will be working on securing the disaster declaration that frees up federal money needed to supplement other sources.

“Let’s just be very blunt. That crop insurance utterly fails to provide adequate compensation as it is now structured,” Blumenthal told the crowd. “We need to provide more aid for smaller farms that grow more crops. In the Northeast, we know that any of the produce farms will grow strawberries, peaches, apples, corn, and multiple crops, not like the big mega-farms out in the Midwest that just grow corn or just grow wheat. The crop insurance program was designed for them, not for us. We need to reform it.”