A federal district court has issued an order to restore millions of dollars in grant money to 24 organizations, including the Agraria Center for Regenerative Practices in Yellow Springs.
This comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture terminated funding for nearly 50 community projects through its Increasing Land, Capital and Market Access Program.
The programs canceled lost close to $300 million with this unexpected termination.
"The funding allowed us, or would have allowed us to gain access to a lot more capital," said Tia Stuart, director of Agraria's BIPOC initiative in a previous interview. "We were on the cusp of rolling that out and so that funding was lost, which was $500,000. So obviously that has a big impact on our farmers."
This lawsuit is the second of its kind against the USDA, challenging the legality of terminating grants for programs that were designed to secure affordable farmland, capital and markets for the next generation.
The USDA claimed the money was used for excessive spending and made little improvements to land access, but defendants in the suit denied these accusations.
"Our project was designed, it was approved and implemented in line with the program's goals," said Stuart. "So we were helping farmers to access land, capital and markets."
Staff attornery for FarmSTAND, Hannah Wolf, said in a previous WYSO coverage of the lawsuit that these terminations were unlawful and unjustifiable.
"There's land opportunities lost, there's technical assistant providers who have been laid off," she said. "Farmers who counted on support are left without resources and it's kind of already a fragile economy for a lot of farmers out there."
The case, USDN v. USDA, was filed in June 2025, alleging that the USDA and DOGE began "engaging in policy, pattern, and practice of unlawfully terminating federal grant awards."
This round of terminations also followed multiple executive orders in 2025 that targeted climate action and efforts to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
"They did not go through the proper, recent decision-making in terminating these grants," said Wolf in an earlier interview. "It was just kind of, like our lawsuit says, they did keyword searches to find programs that maybe talked about climate or DEI and just canceled them in mass."
The grants for the new plantiff groups have been restored as of Tuesday, represented by Earthjustice, Farmers Justice Center, and FarmSTAND.
These additional 24 organizations joined six previous defendants in a similar lawsuit where the court restored their USDA funding.
“The court’s order reinstating $127 million in Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access grants is a massive victory for the people across the U.S. who are building a fairer and more sustainable food system in their communities,” said Wolf in a written statement. “Through this order, and in previously enjoining other grants terminated by USDA and DOGE, the court has consistently recognized that USDA has an obligation to assist all farmers and ranchers. It cannot diminish services to certain farmers by invoking phrases like ‘illegal DEI.’”
Judge Beryl Howell has ordered the defendants update the court on the reinstatement of terminated grants totaling $127 million dollars by 5 p.m. on Friday.
“[The plaintiffs] have demonstrated that the terminations of their individual grants were likely contrary to statute, that they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of relief, and that the balance of equities and public interest favor preliminary injunctive relief," Howell said in a written statement.
