| December
19, 2002 United
States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510 United
State House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear
Member of Congress: The
undersigned organizations write to urge your support for emergency disaster assistance
for crop and livestock producers who have suffered losses during the 2001 and
2002 agriculture production years due to natural disasters. Such disaster assistance
would be consistent with responses by the U.S. government to natural disasters
in the past, including hurricanes, floods, and droughts. The
Food Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 provides increased economic resources,
certainty, and stability across a wide range of agricultural, rural, and nutrition
programs administered by USDA. For commodities, we believe it was the intent of
Congress that the new farm bill reduce or eliminate the need for future ad hoc
market loss-related assistance and, instead, provide a similar level of assistance
in a more efficient and cost effective manner than the legislation it replaced.
In fact, projected outlays for commodity programs under the new law are projected
to be significantly less than the annual average federal expenditures incurred
since 1998. However, the new farm bill is incapable of predicting and adequately
dealing with natural disasters. Furthermore,
due in part to increased prices resulting from the impact of natural disasters,
the most recent projected outlays for 2002 are less than originally projected
at the signing of the farm bill. Despite these savings and the precedence of assistance
for those who suffer from natural disasters, Congress has failed to pass emergency
disaster assistance. For
U.S. farmers and ranchers, the current production disaster is multi-faceted. In
many areas, drought has decimated row crops and forage and has reduced water supplies
available for livestock. In other regions, farmers are experiencing crop destruction
and reduced yields and quality due to flooding and an increased incidence of crop
pests and diseases. Especially hard hit are the specialty crops such as apples,
cherries and grapes in the Great Lakes region, the eastern states and the Pacific
Northwest that suffered frost, freeze and drought damage this season and adverse
weather in 2001 that caused a failure of the blossom set required to produce fruit.
The negative
economic impact of natural disasters to American agriculture and rural communities
continues to grow. -
Almost 90 percent of U.S. counties have received a USDA disaster designation in
2002.
- Over
40 percent have received designations in both 2001 and 2002.
-
Washington State alone suffered $100 million in apple crop losses in 2002 due
to early freeze.
- Adverse
weather conditions cut the expected cotton crop by over 1 million bales. Drought
conditions harmed the growing season, and a series of storms hit during harvest,
inflicting continued quality and quantity losses. In the Southeast and Mid-South,
only 55% of the crop achieved a color grade of Strict Low Middling or better.
This compares to a five-year average of 81%.
- The
producers on the Blackfeet Reservation, Montana, lost over 3000 head of cattle
in a freak June 3rd snowstorm. The storm did fill stock ponds and provided some
additional spring green-up moisture but did not provide enough to alleviate the
effects of four years of drought.
- The
wheat acreage harvested at 45 million acres is the lowest it has been in the last
decade.
Financial
assistance is needed now if the economic ruin of farms, ranches and rural businesses
caused by these natural disasters is to be averted. Within
the range of its existing options, we believe USDA has taken positive actions
to address the weather and disease-related disasters experienced by crop and livestock
producers during the 2001 and 2002 production years. Unfortunately, the Department's
authority and resources available to mitigate the losses sustained by farmers,
ranchers and rural businesses are inadequate given the full scope of the weather
and disease problems confronting American agriculture. While
crop insurance, disaster loans, emergency haying and grazing of Conservation Reserve
Program acreage, and the Livestock Compensation Program (LCP) are helpful, the
relief they provide cannot effectively respond to the unprecedented and expansive
devastation being experienced across a large part of America. We urge your active
engagement and support immediately upon convening the 108th Congress of the emergency
disaster assistance legislation passed by the Senate last session. We
urge Congress to approve this legislation and work with the administration to
ensure that this emergency program is in place, which provides a responsible level
of assistance to those suffering substantial losses as a result of natural disasters.
This adequate response is needed immediately to reduce the devastating economic
impacts being experienced by farmers, ranchers and their communities throughout
much of rural America because of natural disasters beyond their control. Thank
you for your attention to this issue. We look forward to working with you to address
this serious situation in a timely and effective manner. Sincerely,
National Farmers Union
American
Farm Bureau Federation
National Grange National
Farmers Organization
American Beekeeping Federation
American Corn Growers Association
American Sheep Industry Association
American Soybean Association
Burley
Tobacco Growers Cooperative
CoBank
Farm Credit Council
National
Association of State Departments of Agriculture
National Association of Wheat
Growers
National Barley Growers Association
National Cotton Council
National Grain Sorghum Producers
National Grape Cooperative Association,
Inc.
National Milk Producers Federation
National Potato Council
National Sunflower Association
Northeast Farm Credit Regional Council
Northeast States Association for Agricultural Stewardship
R-CALF United Stockgrowers
of America
Soybean Producers of America
Southern Peanut Farmers Federation
USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council
U.S. Apple Association
U.S. Canola
Association
U.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc
Vidalia Onion Business Council
Welch's
WIFE | 
