Several Georgia Congressmen took advantage of a House Agriculture Subcommittee hearing last week to raise awareness of the challenges faced by Georgia farmers, and to continue finding ways to improve the farm safety net for local producers.
Congressman Austin Scott (R-GA-08), Congressman David Scott (D-GA-13), and Congressman Rick Allen (R-GA-12) spoke at the hearing held by the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management titled “How Farm Policy Helps Farmers in Adverse Conditions.” All three raised concerns about the need for crop insurance products for smaller timber, pecan and blueberry farmers.
“Our farmers face unprecedented challenges from natural disasters like Hurricane Michael, low commodity prices, and the dumping of fresh fruits and vegetables into our markets by countries like Mexico,” said Rep. Austin Scott. “How can we improve current crop insurance programs to be more helpful when devastation strikes like it did with Hurricane Michael? Are there ways to make insurance products more available to these commodity groups, and ways to create loan programs so when a disaster does happen people in other parts of the country are not pushed past their planting season as our farmers were in Georgia?”
Rep. David Scott expressed similar concerns. “We have to do something to make sure we have adequate coverage for our timber in Georgia, especially our pine trees. Many times in Georgia we might have a farmer who has 50 acres or so of timber, and he uses it like a savings account or college fund for his children. But we do not have a way to provide adequate insurance coverage for him if something happens. Our growers have been forced to rely on disaster assistance if something happens, and we all have seen, and all know how slow that can be. It’s almost criminal what happened to our farmers in Georgia the last couple of years.
“Many of our farmers have not had a crop in nearly two years because of back-to-back hurricanes,” Scott added.
Allen said many blueberry farmers in his district have been hit hard in the past few years, and have had nowhere to turn for assistance. “My farmers are telling me that crop insurance, even under the new Farm Bill, will not deal with disasters. How can we get crop insurance products which are more focused on smaller, regional commodities?
