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Schumer calls foul on disparate trade compensation for farmers
Schumer calls foul on disparate trade compensation for farmers
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer says a federal program to help compensate farmers for negative trade impacts is stacked against New York farmers.
Schumer said Friday that Southern farmers are receiving 95 percent of the top awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market Facilitation Program, while New Yorkers receive a fraction of what they’re eligible to receive. The program reimburses farms damaged by the variable trade market, but Schumer says an average size farm in Georgia would receive $41.10 more per acre than a similar farm in New York.
The senator shared a report showing that the rate of reimbursement also varies by county in New York, with the largely agricultural Wyoming County receiving just 19 percent of the allotted recovery amount, and more urban Monroe County getting 45 percent of its due.
“USDA is using a flawed formula that helps big, wealthy farms and billion-dollar foreign-owned companies, while our small and family farms in New York have been left in the dust,” Schumer said. “The USDA must stop picking winners and losers in such an unbalanced way, and instead ensure all of America’s and Upstate New York’s farmers get the help they need and deserve—not just a lucky few.”
Schumer is calling upon the USDA to fix the disparity. He said some of the reasons for unequal payments are:
- USDA shuts out specialty crops, which many New York farmers raise, from direct assistance.
- The agency doubled the payment limit for row crop payments from $125,000 to $250,000, helping concentrate payments on farming conglomerates.
- Payments for dairy farmers were based on data six to eight years old rather than on current production numbers.
Attempts to reach a USDA spokesman for comment were unsuccessful.
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