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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Groups Urge OH Officials to Help Small Farms Survive Pandemic

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Tuesday, April 7, 2020   

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Concern over the survival of family farms during the COVID-19 crisis has spurred food policy and farm groups in the state to urge lawmakers to pass policies that would help small and mid-size farmers.

Amalie Lipstreu, policy director at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, said one policy move would be to establish clear social-distancing guidelines for farmers' markets so they can stay open. She also said officials should let farmers sell their unused produce to the emergency food system, which would help provide food for the surge of unemployed folks turning to food pantries.

"There's an opportunity to keep some of these farmers in business by purchasing products that they don't have a market for any more," Lipstreu said. "And we also have the opportunity to redirect those items to the emergency food system, which is under tremendous stress right now."

She pointed out that Ohio has about 320 farmers' markets and more than 75,000 farms, and taking steps now will help those businesses survive now and in the months ahead.

On Friday, the Department of Agriculture is expected to announce directives for distributing $9.5 billion in emergency funds for the nation's agricultural sector through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. Lipstreu said the money is supposed to go to farmers who sell into local and regional food systems and could greatly benefit the Buckeye State.

"We're hoping that the USDA will offer a transparent and accessible program for the kind of farmers that this funding was directed towards," she said. "And these are farmers who don't get other types of federal financial assistance."

She said aid packages for small businesses are being developed on the state and federal levels, but farmers need clarification as to whether they qualify as businesses that can receive some of that assistance.


Disclosure: United Healthcare-Midwest Region contributes to our fund for reporting on Health Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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