7 Georgia Counties Natural Disasters and ASF in Dominican Republic
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Seven Georgia counties have been designated natural disaster areas due to floods and freezing temps.
According to www.agfax.com, this designation allows the USDA Farm Service Agency to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans to meet recovery needs.
The designated counties are Gordon, Union, Echols, Lowndes, Atkinson, Coffee, and Ware.
www.agfax.com/2021/07/30/georgia-7-counties-designated-natural-disaster-areas-to-floods-freeze/
**USDA's Economic Research Service, which does an annual assessment of global food security, estimates there are 1.2 billion food-insecure people this year, an increase of 32% from 2020.
www.agrimarketing.com reports, this means about 31% of the population in the 76 countries covered by the study aren't getting the 2,100 calories they need on a daily basis. About 72% of them were in Asia, with 21% in Africa.
ERS forecasts the food-insecure population will drop to 638 million people by 2031.
www.agrimarketing.com/s/137233
**The recent confirmation of African swine fever in the Dominican Republic was the first in the Western Hemisphere in 40 years.
U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Dan Halstrom says while the ASF findings are concerning, the U.S. is well-prepared and extensive safeguards are in place to protect the health of our swine herd.
But, Halstrom emphasizes this does heighten the need for U.S. regionalization protocols that allow exports from non-impacted areas to continue in the event of a U.S. outbreak.
