CFAP Changes Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Many growers who were feeling like Congress and the USDA had left them out of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, can now breath a sigh of relief … financial relief for apple, potato and other growers.
U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says the USDA last week announced the adjustments as well as some clarification to the language that had felt a little skewed…
NEWHOUSE … “The original language did not, in all practicality, allow their participation in the program. So, this will open it up to be more beneficial to them. So, good news today.”
In the beginning, Newhouse says we were making up the rules as we went along…
NEWHOUSE … “So, when the original package was passed, I think the intention was to address immediate concerns that were known at the time understanding that as, you know, last Spring we didn’t know how long this was going to impact the country, didn’t know what some of the long-term impacts would be.”
So, Newhouse says it was incomplete …
NEWHOUSE … “And so, we passed the first package kind of with the understanding that there potentially should be more that we’ll have to do to respond to some of the longer-term impacts that were unknown.”
Bottom line, Newhouse says …
NEWHOUSE … “And so, that’s generally, I think, where the conversation is. We’re kind of trying to understand what those impacts are, what the impacts markets have been in lost income and increase costs.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the CFAP changes and what it looks like moving forward.
