Coalition report details mounting risks to farms, food systems and rural communities across the Northeast

BOSTON, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Farm Aid and the Northeast Climate Disaster Relief Network (NCDRN) released “When Disaster Becomes the Norm: Climate Risk and the Future of Northeast Agriculture,” a new white paper that explores the growing toll of climate-driven events on the region’s agricultural economy and communities.

According to the report, the U.S. now averages 19 disasters costing more than $1 billion each year, up from just three per year in the 1980s. In the Northeast, record floods, heatwaves and rainfall are causing mounting losses, while farmers lack reliable federal aid, timely state support to respond to these pressures and access to crop insurance.

The white paper highlights how these climate disasters are creating compounding impacts across the food system, including crop losses, land and labor loss, supply chain disruption and an ongoing farmer mental health crisis.

Among the report’s findings:

• According to the latest National Climate Assessment, the Northeast is already warmer and wetter than a century ago, with average temperatures over 2°F higher than in the early 1900s and a significant rise in extreme precipitation events, which are unusually heavy bursts of rain or snow.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s database, while authoritative for large-scale disasters, excludes regional floods, hailstorms and frosts that cause hundreds of millions in damage.
• From 2001 to 2022, total indemnity payments for the five primary weather-related causes (drought, excess rain, hail, heat and freeze) reached $118.7 billion nationwide.
• Climate disasters disproportionately impact BIPOC farmers, farmworkers and other historically underserved communities.

“Farmers in the Northeast struggle with barriers to crop insurance, delayed and inaccessible federal aid and increasingly unpredictable weather,” said Farm Aid Policy and Advocacy Manager Hank Tremblay. “Elected officials, funders and nonprofit agriculture organizations must work together to create a comprehensive safety net that meets the needs of all our region’s farmers.”

The report outlines a roadmap for building a stronger agricultural disaster response system, including establishing permanent state-level disaster relief funds, reducing barriers to assistance, investing in climate resilience and ensuring that farmers and farmworkers help shape the programs intended to support them.

For more information, find the full report here: farmaid.org/ncdrn-whitepaper.

Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff host an annual festival to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. Since 1985, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised more than $90 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.

NCDRN is a coalition of agricultural service providers, advocates and farmers working to ensure that farmers and workers in the Northeast are equitably and effectively resourced before, during and after climate disasters. Developed by a coalition of agricultural service providers, advocates and farmers across the region, the report details how climate disasters are reshaping agriculture in the Northeastern United States faster than existing support systems can adapt.

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SOURCE Farm Aid