Local farmers face struggles after flooding, ravaging crops

While Healy was in Williamsburg, leaders from the Department of Agriculture were touring farms damaged by the flooding. 22 News reporter Alana Flood spoke to some of these farmers today about the produce they lost and how it will affect their income. That's right, Nick. These farmers have a lot on their plate. From assessing the financial losses to determining if the soil on their land is now contaminated. People who live and farm near the banks of the swollen Connecticut River continue to struggle. The owner of Lazy Acres Farm has a pumpkin patch that's underwater with puddles slowly draining deeper into the earth. But it's not the floodwaters he worries about. It's the plant diseases that thrive in these wet conditions. He has not calculated his losses yet, but thinks back to 2018 when a similar event happened. I lost most of my squash and pumpkins I grow. So for the next two years I had to sell property to fund the farm. So I'm hoping to stay ahead of it this year, but I'm apprehensive. While the floodwaters from the Mill River at the 121-acre Grow Food Northampton have receded, the problems are here to stay. Farmers here are putting together action plans on how to move forward, which include testing the soil to see if it was contaminated by the floodwater. What's next for the farmers here? Well, food safety dictates that any piece of produce that has touched floodwaters must be picked and thrown away. Tony Hall runs Song Sparrow Farm. All the crops they were about to sell are now gone. A group of volunteers just helped clean up all the debris that washed into the crops during the flooding. They estimate a loss of $15,000 at least. We actually have to kind of start over, and it's like new spring again, this July. So it's as if we've lost 50 percent of the work to create 50 percent of the capital for the business. Farmers also mentioned to me that they had concerns about what's supposed to be a continually wet summer.