Finding Loans & Official Pandemic

Finding Loans & Official Pandemic. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Finding it harder to qualify for loans from traditional sources - an increasing number of farmers are turning to USDA for funds to finance their operations. Doug Caruso, USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator says they are seeing a lot of demand.

CARUSO: As of May 30^th demand for direct operating loans was up 81%, demand for direct ownership loans was up 132% and demand for guaranteed operating loans has increased by 31%.

The World Health Organization says we are in the midst of what it’s calling a “pandemic”. The Organization reports that nearly 30-thousand cases of influenza have been identified in 74 countries, including the United States, Europe, Australia and South America. It’s been 41 years since a similar problem occurred in our world. Governments are expected to devote more money toward efforts to contain the type A H1N1 virus while the WHO is asking drugmakers to speed up production of a vaccine, which it said would be available later this fall.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange Report.

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That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.