A large winter storm (click here) swept through the southeastern United States in
January 2014, dropping snow and ice on an area unaccustomed to dealing
with winter weather.
Are you people for real? Did any legislator ever stop to realize what people are facing in temperatures alone and their records have to be meticulous. I don't think so.
Contact: Kent Politsch
(202) 720-7163
WASHINGTON,
March 6, 2014 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm
Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Juan M. Garcia, today repeated his
appeal to livestock producers affected by natural disasters such as the
drought in the West and the unexpected winter storm in the upper Midwest
to keep thorough records. This includes livestock and feed losses, and
any additional expenses that are a result of losses to purchased forage
or feed stuff....
I would think dead animals due to severe weather would be easy to validate.
"The 2014 Farm Bill provides a strong farm safety net to help ranchers
during these difficult times,” said Garcia. “We’ll provide producers
with information on new program requirements, updates and signups as the
information becomes available. In the meantime, I urge producers to
keep thorough records. We know these disasters have caused serious
economic hardships for our livestock producers. We’ll do all we can to
assist in their recovery.”
Ah, so, basically Congress put on a good show but no one will get a dime.
I especially like this one:
Costs of transporting livestock to safer grounds or to move animals to new pastures;
"Martha, I should have fixed that odometer last year."
or
"Why didn't Joe call when he knew the storm was coming this way?"
Any delay in relief to small family farms will put them out of business. There should be no question to the integrity of request with reasonable proof of their operation. There are tax records the government can call up if they suspect fraud. This is nonsense.
The USDA needs to arrive to the tragedy and emergency with checkbook in hand. And maybe a calculator to do simple math. This gets real simple, acreages of crops lost, amount of feed bins ruined, animals lost and the expense to save any other stock in realizing the distance of the transport and the transport and expense of feed. Nothing to it. This is not that difficult. The farmers themselves should NOT be required to file one page of paperwork. The USDA can do it all by themselves. It is called an assessment and insurance companies do it all the time.
The USDA needs to get in their vehicles powered by ethanol produced by the corn producers and drive to the farms hit by severe weather. The farmers have far too much to do to require them to sit down and actually figure out their losses in a real way. They are traumatized and should not be treated as if they can remove themselves from their losses in order to make government agencies happy in order to survive.
I don't know who wrote this completely idiotic requirement, but, the needs of our farmers have to be addressed in a productive and functional way.
