Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry and Maine Representative Chelle Pingree are asking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to expand the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program to include small diversified farms. Those are producers who rely on local market outlets and direct to consumer sales. Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman says there are a number of those farmers who have been detrimentally impacted by the pandemic.
He says Iowa’s agriculture is much more diversified than people realize and there are several of those who badly need the CFAP assistance.
Lehman says USDA needs to allow for payments on total revenue losses, rather than price losses for individual commodities and should also provide flexibility on documentation regarding losses.
Lehman says while the CFAP help is needed by these diversified farmers, it will be a bit of challenge reaching some of them because many have never before dealt with government payment programs.
