Agricultural News
AFR/OFU's Scott Blubaugh Says There will Need to Be More Money for Producers
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 12:37:00 CDT
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the $19 billion Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. The program is intended to support America's farmers and ranchers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The agriculture industry, already reeling from trade war fallout, has lost billions due to plummeting prices, sudden drops in demand and supply chain weaknesses, and AFR/OFU Cooperative president Scott Blubaugh says he's very disappointed in the relief plan.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Associate farm director, KC Sheperd spoke with Blubaugh, and he expressed that there will need to be more money, "When we got the details on how they are going to spend that money, it's just totally inadequate."
Blubaugh says the program will not do much for the producers in the dairy business and the farmers and ranchers who have suffered greatly from this market disruption. He says the money at best is about 1/3 of what it should be in order to make producers somewhat whole, "The dollars lost in the cattle business is around 14 billion dollars, so the funding is very inadequate at 5.1 billion for the entire cattle industry, so it's going to do very little for any of our commodity groups."
Blubaugh said they are talking to Congress in hopes that more money will be allocated to the agriculture industry, "We're hopeful that they will put some more money in there to keep an economic disaster from happening."
Blubaugh said his advice to producers right now is to be contacting your Congressman and Senators and letting them know what a dire situation this is, "Email, call, any kind of correspondence that you can reach out will greatly help. We are working hard every day to bring this issue to the forefront and keep it in front of Congress and USDA to get some relief. We are working hard for you, hang in there."
To hear the complete interview with Scott Blubaugh, click or tap below
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