The field at Flats Mentor Farm in Lancaster was soggy, muddy, and partially underwater as more rain cascaded over the property Monday. That was an improvement from a week earlier, when the nearby Nashua River overflowed, submerging the farm completely. The same thing happened back in July. The hits just keep on coming.
Farmer Barnibus Forndia said he wasn't able to save any of his vegetables. "We lost everything. We started, and then the water just came," he said. He's from Liberia, among the 214 immigrant refugees who work at the Flats Mentor Farm through a program called World Farmers. It also connects them with resources to sell what they grow there. Not this year.
"We did determine that we had high levels of bacteria, so it was said that we can't do any replanting," said program director Jessy Gill. Fifty-five acres of crops are gone. Joash Nyansageria, a farmer from Kenya, counted 180 trays of destroyed plants in his greenhouse. He said they were worth about $50 each, adding up to $9,000. That's only part of his loss. "It flooded. The water went up to here, so...I never planted these," he said.
"I feel very bad and terrified," said Forndia. He said he's concerned about what the changing climate could bring next.
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