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| Dear Friend, |
| Today, I want to share Laura Beth Resnick’s story. She is an Earthjustice partner and the owner of Butterbee Farm. The Trump administration’s funding freezes have blocked a $36,000 reimbursement she is owed after installing solar panels on her sustainable farm. |
| Follow this link to our website or keep reading below for the full story. |
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| “People are super stressed and angry,” says Laura Beth Resnick, owner of Butterbee Farm, a regenerative flower farm in Maryland. She’s one of many across the country whose lives were upended after President Trump froze billions of dollars in federal funds guaranteed to folks like Resnick earlier this year. |
| Resnick started Butterbee just out of college more than a decade ago, after learning that 80% of blooms sold in the U.S. are shipped from overseas. She wanted to do better by selling higher quality, longer-lasting flowers with a lower carbon footprint. |
| In 2024, Resnick went through a grant-writing process to take advantage of agriculture funds through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the $391 billion climate-solutions bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in 2022. The program would have helped lower her high energy costs by subsidizing the installation of solar panels on her farm. Resnick agreed to pay the entire cost upfront, about $72,000, after the federal government promised to reimburse her for half through the IRA. |
| The day she found out her reimbursement request was rejected — after previously having been approved — Resnick was driving a van full of flowers to D.C. |
| “I started to panic,” says Resnick. “I finished my delivery to a couple of florists, and then I remember feeling too messed up to drive home, so I just parked the van and walked around D.C. in a daze. It was just shocking.” |
| Resnick is just one of thousands of Americans suddenly left in the lurch by the withholding of funds. Small farmers like Resnick rely on federal grants to stay afloat and care for their land so that they leave it in better shape for the next generation. She emphasizes that farmers need these types of grants — or there won't be farms. |
| “If contracts aren’t honored and farmers can no longer trust the government,” says Resnick. “I’m worried about what that means for the future of farming.” |
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| Earthjustice is working to help Laura Beth and other farmers, small business owners, and everyday Americans who have been hurt by funding freezes to the IRA. Please stay tuned for updates in the coming days. |
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Sincerely,
Jessica A. Knoblauch
Senior Staff Writer
Earthjustice |
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