News Tagged ‘USDA’

Pulaski County has been designated as a primary disaster area by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, joining 13 other counties alongside the existing list of 50 counties considered primary natural disaster areas. The USDA on Wednesday also designated 16 contiguous counties as eligible for assistance, bringing the grand total to 80 Indiana counties that now qualify for assistance from the Farm Service Agency.

Representative Tom Dermody of LaPorte says he’s pleased that the USDA expanded their assistance to more counties, because he feels it will be critical to helping Hoosier farmers make it through next year. He says he will continue to advocate on behalf of LaPorte County to make it eligible as well for federal assistance due to the drought conditions.

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Thirty-six counties in Indiana have been designated as primary natural disaster areas due to losses caused by extreme drought. State Executive Director of USDA’s Farm Service Agency in Indiana announced Friday that the USDA will also qualify farm operators in 19 other counties for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous to the designated counties.

Allen, Carroll, Cass, Crawford, Daviess, DeKalb, Dubois, Elkhart, Fulton, Gibson, Grant, Greene, Howard, Huntington, Knox, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Lawrence, Marshall, Martin, Miami, Noble, Orange, Perry, Pike, Posey, Pulaski, St. Joseph, Spencer, Steuben, Sullivan, Vanderburgh, Wabash, Warrick, Wells, and Whitley counties have been designated as primary natural disaster areas.

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The Indiana Farm Bureau has released grocery price statistics for the first quarter of this year.

Prices rose slightly, but that increase was enough to set a new record high for food prices on the survey. Sixteen food items on the survey cost an average of $51.15, up $1.55 from the fourth-quarter 2011 survey. The previous record was $50.70, set in the third quarter of 2008. Of the 16 items surveyed, six decreased in prices while ten increased.

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Indiana pork production takes center stage on Wednesday, October 26th, at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Indiana Dietetic Association District 3 meeting to be held at the Church of the Nazarene in Winamac.

Jim Erickson, of TDM Farms in Camden, will address the group.

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Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has asked the United States Department of Agriculture to designate 52 counties disaster areas due to losses caused by drought conditions that occurred in 2010.

Upon reviewing the loss reports, the USDA has determined that there were sufficient production losses to warrant a Secretarial disaster designation. In our area, LaPorte County and Newton County fall within the primary natural disaster areas due to losses caused by drought that occurred from August 1st through December 31st, 2010. Starke County and Jasper County have been listed as contiguous disaster counties. A Secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in both primary and contiguous counties eligible to be considered for assistance from the Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers have eight months to apply for emergency loan assistance.

Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers with further information.

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