Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says a new farmer bailout program will be an enormous help to American producers who are struggling with near-record diesel prices and sky-high input costs due to unstable markets.
The U.S.D.A. announced the effort Monday that will make up to $8 billion available in one-time payments to farmers this harvest season.
“Whether it’s the Grassley family or any of the other 86,000 family farmers in Iowa, we obviously are concerned about the price and glad to have the help,” he says.
U.S.D.A . officials say the Harvest Fuel Relief program is designed to bring certainty to farmers during the harvest so they can continue to feed our nation.
Grassley acknowledges that most farmers would prefer to farm than rely on the federal government for a check to make ends meet.
He says, “What I’ve been hearing for the last year from Iowa farmers is they’d rather get their money from the marketplace than from the U.S. Treasury.”
Last year’s tax bill contained several elements which Grassley says were crafted especially to aid producers in Iowa and nationwide.
“We raised the support prices for corn and soybeans, improved the crop insurance program, got money to expand our exports,” Grassley says, “and that’s what the federal government can do to help farmers.”
The Harvest Fuel Relief program will be administered by the Farm Service Agency and the U.S.D.A. says the first payments for Title One commodities, including corn, soybeans, barley, oats, wheat and others, will be released in November.
(USDA photo)
