Already Reeling From Tariff War, Some Farmers Aren’t Receiving Government Support Checks Amid Shutdown
Editor
Farm Service Agency (FSA) Loan Officer Mary Glaspie successfully works with farmers like Norman Grimm (L) and his grandson Jason Grimm.
Jason started his farm enterprise, Grimm Family Farm in 2011, and manages his enterprises while farming alongside his family near North English, Iowa.
Grimm Family Farm raises dry beans, pastured poultry and produce for local markets.
In addition to farming Jason works full time as the Food Systems Director at Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development in Amana, Iowa.
Since 2009, Jason has been the project manager of the RC&DÕs Regional Food Initiative. Grimm manages five program areas: Getting Fresh, Local Produce into Area Schools, Providing Training for Beginning Farmers & Market Vendors, Connecting Farms to Viable Wholesale Markets, Technical Assistance for Small Food Business Entrepreneurs, Reducing Food Insecurity Through Charitable Food Production and Education.
Grimm works with local and county governments, health authorities, schools, producers, non-profit organizations, food processors and developers who are working to build a sustainable food and agriculture system in the Iowa Corridor Region that includes Benton, Iowa, Johnson, Linn, Tama, Poweshiek, Washington, Cedar and Jones counties.
USDA Photo by Preston Keres
The government check hadn’t arrived, and John Boyd was out of seeds.
So he left his family farm here in southern Virginia on Tuesday and went to the local Farm Service Agency office, a last-ditch attempt to see if any essential personnel with the U.S. Agriculture Department were still working. He was hoping they could help, even with the partial federal government shutdown stretching on with no end in sight.
The Trump administration had promised to help farmers like Boyd, those who suffered as a result of the international trade war after Chinese purchases of soybeans — once 60 percent of the market — plummeted to next to nothing. With farmers on the edge of ruin, the U.S. government offered $12 billion in support since September, checks that had become a lifeline.
But with the government shutdown moving into its third week, Boyd was left waiting for his support check to arrive. Other farmers who still must have their crop totals approved by the government to receive aid were left with no way to apply for it.
The delay has been the latest blow to a soybean farming community of more than 300,000 that has suffered steep price declines and bad weather, leaving some to contemplate switching crops for the coming year — or getting out of farming altogether.
