Julia Lazarski was getting ready to build a high tunnel on her small Wisconsin vegetable farm. The hoop-shaped structure would help protect her crops from unpredictable weather and allow her to grow her business. And it was all going to be possible, she hoped, through a USDA grant that she was in the process of applying for.
But when the Trump administration ordered a freeze on funding for climate-friendly farming projects, Lazarski’s plans were thrown into limbo. She has not heard from her rep at the USDA in weeks.
“That's something that's basically putting any plans for expanding my business on hold until I can come up with the funds to invest in something like that myself,” said Lazarski, who sells her veggies to restaurants and at farmers markets.
Lazarski spoke on Tuesday in Milwaukee during a gathering of restaurants, farmers and legislators hosted by the James Beard Foundation. The event, part of the foundation’s Climate Solutions for Restaurant Survival campaign, focused on how climate change is affecting restaurants and what they can do about it at the government level.
The campaign, launched last February, is working to shape policy that will help independent restaurants adapt to climate change, which it views as an existential threat to the industry.
The transition underway in Washington, D.C., has added an extra sense of urgency to those efforts. Through executive order, the Trump administration has frozen all funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including $20 billion that had been earmarked for environmentally friendly farming projects like Lazarski’s. It’s unclear how much, if any, of the funding will be released.
“We’re moving through a major transition as many of you know … which is creating a lot of unknowns and scary times for a lot of people who are invested in the programs that we’re talking about here today,” said Patricia Griffin, a partner with government relations firm NVG. “They are laying out an agenda that, unfortunately, around conservation and climate-smart practices, is not particularly friendly at the moment.”
Lobbyist Patricia Griffin explains the state of affairs in Washington.
Indeed, the IRA climate funds could be targeted for cuts as the administration looks to pay for up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. But there is also hope that they could be preserved in the next Farm Bill, a massive piece of legislation that sets the country’s food and agriculture policy. In June, the James Beard Foundation sent a letter to Congress urging it to include the $20 billion IRA conservation funds in the new bill.
And yet that too is mired in uncertainty: The current Farm Bill expired in 2023, and lawmakers have yet to agree on a new one.
“There may or may not be an attempt to move that farm bill forward, and not delay it anymore,” Griffin said. “So that’s one space we have to pay attention to and see how it moves.”
Grappling with climate change
Last year, Wisconsin experienced its warmest winter on record, part of a warming pattern that has not gone unnoticed by restaurateurs in the state.
“We don’t really have a spring so much anymore,” said Dan Jacobs, chef and co-owner of Chinese-American restaurant DanDan, where the event was held.
The shorter growing season has made it harder for Jacobs to find local produce throughout the spring and summer. Last year, for instance, there was virtually no locally grown asparagus to be found in the area, he said. That has created challenges for DanDan, where the menu doesn’t change that much.
Extreme weather events from outside the state are also having local impacts. When smoke from Canadian wildfires endangered the air quality in Milwaukee two summers ago, local farm-to-table restaurant Odd Duck was forced to close its patio.
“Patios are your gold in the summer,” said co-owner Melissa Buchholz. “These things that are happening very far away are also affecting us.”
[Check out our in-depth look at climate change and restaurants.]
These trends are also impacting farmers, many of whom sell their products to local restaurants.
Lynn Centgraf, owner of Centgraf Farms in Mayville, said hotter summers have made it more difficult to hire workers, and Centgraf has had to raise its wages to entice them. Those hikes get passed along to restaurants and then likely to their customers.
“You have to get that money back somehow,” Centgraf said.
Others noted that the changing climate has made the typical cycles of planting, growing and harvesting harder and harder to predict.
“All of those things that your grandfather and father taught you about farming don’t apply anymore,” said Sandy Syburg, owner of White Oak Farm in Oconomowoc.
Attendees said challenges like these are the reason that federal support such as the IRA funding is needed.
A call for stories
The good news is that this is actually something Democrats and Republicans tend to have some agreement on.
“We do still have some Republican support of these practices because of what they learn when they go home (to their districts),” said Griffin of NVG. “It’s not just about climate versus everything else, it’s about the ability to grow good food and support the independent restaurant industry.”
With that in mind, several federal and state lawmakers in the room—all Democrats—urged restaurateurs to make their voices heard. They encouraged operators to contact their representatives and share how climate change or IRA funds have impacted their businesses.
“What we could use more than anything is your stories,” said state Sen. Christopher Larson. “We get lost in statistics, we get lost in the budgets … but sharing those stories helps bring it to life.”
“Your voice does matter,” Jacobs added. “All it takes is a second to call Congress.” He noted that the more calls a legislator gets on a particular topic, the better chance it has of becoming a priority.
And others pointed out that when restaurants talk, representatives tend to listen. “Everything else they can ignore,” said Buchholz of Odd Duck, “but they all go out to eat.”