Torrential Rain Leaves U.S. Midwest Vegetable Farmers Struggling With No Aid in Sight
(Worthy News) – Like farmers throughout the Midwest, this spring’s torrential rains turned Andrew Dunham’s land into sticky muck that set him back nearly a month in planting his crops.
Unlike other farmers, though, Dunham won’t get a piece of a $16 billion aid package to offset his losses and he can’t fall back on federally subsidized crop insurance because he grows herbs, flowers and dozens of vegetable varieties, but not the region’s dominant crops of corn and soybeans.
“There are no federal bailouts for vegetable farmers,” said Dunham, who owns an 80-acre (32-hectare) organic farm with his wife near Grinnell, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Des Moines, and is enduring weeks without sales as his crops ripen. “We’ll just miss out on three weeks of income.” [ Source: TIME (Read More…) ]