Nearly two months after devastating floods submerged thousands of acres of Vermont farmland, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Tuesday approved a Secretarial Disaster Designation for all 14 counties in the state.
The declaration from the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows Vermont farmers to be considered for its Farm Service Agency loans. Farmers impacted by floods in all 14 counties have eight months to apply for the emergency loans.
The USDA’s process for declaring a disaster is slow. Farmers must first document the damage wrought on their farms — an often labor-intensive, tedious undertaking amidst an emergency response — in order for a given county to meet a damage threshold, determined by USDA, to qualify for the designation.
USDA Under Secretary Robert Bonnie paid a visit to Vermont in mid-August to survey some of the crop damage. In his letter to Gov. Phil Scott on Tuesday, Vilsack said all 14 counties sustained enough production losses to qualify.
In a subsequent statement, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts thanked Vilsack for the disaster declaration — the second approved for Vermont this growing season. Vilsack issued the first in July after a late spring frost decimated millions of dollars in fruit crops across the state two months earlier.
“With over $16 million in farmer-reported flood related damage and losses, and severe impacts from frost this May, our farming community has faced a one-two punch this year that some may not survive,” Tebbetts said on Tuesday. “This designation can provide a lifeline to these important farm and food businesses with resources until next year’s growing season.”
Unlike some other forms of natural disaster aid — such as individual assistance distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency — USDA offers emergency loans, which carry interest, to farmers hit by disaster. Any interest-free aid to Vermont farmers from the federal government would need to be approved by Congress.
The state of Vermont has committed $1 million to farmers out of its $20 million flood emergency grant program for businesses.
Vermont farmers interested in USDA’s disaster loans are encouraged to contact their local USDA service center. More information is available at www.farmers.gov/recover.
