Inflation Reduction Act in Action | Farm Loans: Supporting Multiple Generations

Through no fault of their own, our nation’s farmers and ranchers have faced incredibly tough circumstances over the last few years. That includes Andy Ordaz of Mechanicsville, Virginia, who is one of the more than 20,000 producers who have received life-changing, transformational support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provided $3.1 billion for USDA to provide relief for distressed borrowers with certain FSA direct and guaranteed loans whose agricultural operations are at financial risk, USDA has provided approximately $1.1 billion in immediate assistance for distressed borrowers, including those who were behind on their USDA farm loans, to help make them current.

This has helped producers like Andy who were at risk of losing their operations due to several unprecedented challenges, including trade disruptions, a worldwide pandemic, continued impacts on input costs and markets, and more frequent, more intense, climate-induced natural disasters.

Andy got a love of farming from his father, Juan Carlos Ordaz-Barajas. Juan was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. to work as a farmhand on a large vegetable farm, where he worked for 25 years. Working on the farm was a family affair as Juan had his partner and children move there to all live together. The farm’s owner thought of the Ordazs as family. When the farm’s owner passed away in 2018, his wife auctioned the equipment.