Assistance not expected soon for farmers

Discussion

May 1, 2007

By Evan Belanger The Cullman Times Tue May 01, 2007, 02:37 AM CDT

As Congressional Democrats and the Bush White House battle over war spending this week, local farmers who lost much of their livelihoods to frost this spring are being told they must wait out the conflict before emergency funds may be available to them.

The war-spending bill, which passed the Senate 51-46 Thursday and the House the day before, is expected to be vetoed by the president before Wednesday, because it contains a timeline for removing troops from Iraq beginning Oct. 1.

Deputy press secretary for the White House Dana Perino called the bill “dead before arrival” in a press conference.

But whatever side federal leaders are taking on the Iraq War, the debate has also delayed $124.2 billion for non-war funding. Part of that includes funding for farm relief, which locals say is badly needed this year.

On the Spradlin Farm near West Point, Doug and Sue Spradlin say they lost 100 percent of their 2,500-tree peach crop to sub-freezing temperatures in early April. They also lost the entirety of their apple and berry crops.

“We’ll have vegetables and that’s about it,” Sue Spradlin said Monday. “[Doug] is planting something else just about every day.”

Across the county and state, the story is much the same for most farmers. Plant nurseries, wheat and orchard crops have been devastated by the cold snap. According to the Spradlins, many peaches in south Georgia and south Alabama survived the freeze, but prices are still about $15 a basket.

While they were planning to buy some peaches for resale this year — peaches are normally their largest and most valuable crop — they say they won’t until prices fall.

“You can’t buy and resell at that price,” Sue Spradlin said.

Despite the farm crunch, local officials are saying little about when or if farm relief will be available.

At the Cullman County Farm Service Agency, which handles nearly all farm-relief funding for the county, director Calvin Veal said they have received no information concerning possible relief this year.

That’s bad news for local farmers, who are already coming off a hard year, Veal says. A drought in 2006 decimated row crops and hay harvests, dramatically impacting corn and cattle farmers.

Even then, farm assistance was not made available to local farmers. Veal said Cullman County was declared a natural disaster area in 2006, making low-interest farm loans available to area farmers. “But if you can’t pay it back, you don’t want to barrow anything,” he said.

Veal said Monday he hadn’t heard anything on whether Cullman County will be declared a natural disaster area again this year.

In Washington, there is little indication of timely resolution to the debate. Bush vowed to work with Democrats on war compromises Friday, but said nothing about farm funding or other domestic programs contained in the bill.

In a statement, Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, said he approved of the president’s decision to veto the war-spending bill, but supported much of the non-war funding contained in it.

“It’s unfortunate that the liberal leaders in Congress have chosen to muddy the waters and inject this vital program into the middle of the war debate,” he said.

“If the leadership of the House truly cares about America’s farmers, they will immediately bring a crop-disaster-aid bill to the floor so that we can quickly vote on it and send it to the president for a signature.”

According to analysts, the $124.2 billion in non-war spending was attached to the bill, which provides $90 billion for the war, in an effort to rally support for the political statement, which makes the Iraq War “Bush’s war.”

According to the Associated Press, Democrats have signaled they will jettison the timeline from a future bill, but it is not clear how long it will take to draft it.

Bush is expected to sit down with Congressional Democrats Wednesday to discuss a compromise on the issue.

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