For Immediate Release
Contact: Laura Zaks
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
press@sustainableagriculture.net
Release: NSAC Commends White House Request for Disaster Assistance for ALL Farmers
Congress must follow and authorize revenue-based disaster assistance to support farmers and ranchers reeling from Hurricanes Helene and Milton
Washington, DC, November 20, 2024 – The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) released the following comment after today’s Senate Committee on Appropriations Hearing, “A Review of Disaster Funding Needs,” assessing Monday’s request by the White House for supplemental disaster assistance. The comment is attributable to Billy Hackett, NSAC Policy Specialist.
“Too many family farmers remain in limbo more than one month after Hurricanes Helene and Milton barreled through the southeast United States. NSAC is heartened by the White House’s request to Congress for supplemental disaster assistance, which includes an explicit appeal for relief that reaches farmers without crop insurance or permanent disaster coverage. That would extend eligibility to a majority of U.S. farms – including the small to mid-sized farmers growing fruits and vegetables who are historically excluded from the farm safety net but are highly representative of the hardest-hit regions. NSAC members in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida solicited widespread reports of total crop loss, infrastructure damage, and soil erosion and contamination for which relief is still needed, lest we lose more farms to foreclosure. Revenue-based assistance, first introduced in the Emergency Relief Program, remains the only streamlined tool to-date demonstrated to reach American farmers’ diverse recovery needs.
NSAC encourages lawmakers to authorize relief that reaches all the farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers still reeling most from the impacts of increasingly unpredictable natural disasters nationwide, inclusive of those without prior coverage. In addition, NSAC looks to the next farm bill as an opportunity to both strengthen the resilience of the food and farm system to reduce losses and expand access to permanent risk management programs to reduce the need for ad-hoc disaster assistance in the future.”
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The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net