reports, released in May and November 2025, estimated the storm’s immediate physical and financial toll and looked at how farmers accessed financial support and technical assistance. All three reports are available at asapconnections.org/local-food-research-center. 

The new report, “Hurricane Helene: Uneven Recovery for Small Mountain Farms,” draws on ASAP’s 2025 Appalachian Grown Producer Survey, gathered approximately 14 months after the storm, to ask where farms stand now and how recovery has varied from farm to farm. It compares farms that said Helene impacted their business with farms that were not impacted, tracks change since the 2023 and 2024 surveys, and breaks the findings out by key factors including gross sales, limited-resource status, acreage, and number of years farming. 

Key highlights: 

● Recovery is happening, but it is incomplete. Fewer farms report Helene-related sales losses in 2025 than in 2024. But fewer farms reported sales growth than in the year prior to the storm. 

● The remaining burden is concentrated. Lower-revenue and limited-resource farms lost a larger share of their 2025 sales and are recovering more slowly. 

● The kind of loss a farm experienced helps explain the gap. Sales lost to disrupted market outlets have largely come back; sales lost to reduced production, which fall disproportionately on lower-revenue farms, have not. 

● Local food system development and diversification helped. Farms selling through more outlets recovered faster. 

● What farms need now is capital for infrastructure, a disaster response that better serves small and diversified farms, and the steady support small farms need in any year. 

"ASAP is committed to understanding the changing needs of small farms and communities in the Southern Appalachians,” said Molly Nicholie, ASAP Executive Director. “This report reinforces the value and importance of local food system development that is place based and community adaptive. How we support small farms between the storms is just as critical as how we respond in times of crisis.”

This aligns with the Western North Carolina Economic Recovery Plan released last month that focused on using and leveraging existing assets of communities as the foundation of revitalization and named agriculture a key line of effort. This included highlighting the local food system relationship infrastructure ASAP has helped build and actionable opportunities for support. 

This report is based on work supported in part by the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture, through the Beginning Farmer Rancher Development Program; and the University of Arkansas-Division of Agriculture Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center from the USDA Farm Service Agency.