National Farmers Endorses New York Senator Gillibrand’s, Congresswoman Maloney’s Relief for America’s Small Farmers Act

National Farmers Endorses New York Senator Gillibrand’s, Congresswoman Maloney’s Relief for America’s Small Farmers Act

(Ames, Iowa) April 28, 2020 — National Farmers Organization on Tuesday endorsed the Relief for America’s Small Farmers Act introduced by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y.

For more than six years, farmers and ranchers operating at a wide range of scales and producing a variety of commodities have received prices consistently below their costs of production, driving the climb of farm debt to historically high levels. Increasingly intense and frequent natural disasters, such as the historic 2019 flooding throughout the Midwest, and volatile trade disputes that further degraded prices, have rocked farmers. This has resulted in more than $415 billion in farm debt and the loss of more than 38,000 farms since 2016.

“What farmers have weathered since 2016 is virtually unbearable, and now the pandemic has put a bold question mark behind producers’ economic futures,” said National Farmers Organization President Paul Olson.

The Relief for America’s Small Farmers Act would provide direct debt relief for small farmers around the country by providing a one-time loan forgiveness of up to $250,000 across three types of USDA Farm Service Agency loans: direct operating, direct farm ownership and emergency loans. Eligible farmers must have an average adjusted gross income of $300,000 annually, or less over the previous five years, regardless of what they grow.

National Farmers markets milk, livestock and crops for thousands of American agricultural producers. We offer six decades of experience representing farmers and ranchers, and grouping production from many ag operations. We help producers market together. National Farmers’ experienced marketing professionals negotiate on conventional and certified organic farmers’ behalf in cash and contract sales, establishing commodity sales terms with the farmers’ interests in mind.