USDA Grants Florida Disaster Aid and Farm Share of Food Dollar
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**The USDA granted Florida Ag Commissioner Nikki Fried’s request for a Secretarial disaster declaration for dozens of counties impacted by freezing temperatures in late January.
www.morningagclips.com reports, 17 primary counties are now eligible for USDA emergency loans and other federal assistance from the Farm Service Agency.
A decision on 10 additional counties has been deferred until harvest when production losses can be accurately determined.
Producers now have eight months to apply.
www.morningagclips.com/usda-approves-disaster-declaration-for-27-counties-in-fla-impacted-by-january-freeze/
**The USDA’s nutrition security efforts will build on the work they’re doing to improve America’s food security by increasing its focus on diet-related chronic diseases, that studies show are a leading cause of death in this country.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says, as many as two-thirds of U.S. COVID hospitalizations are related to diet-related diseases.
Poor diet increases the risks of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and more.
**The farm share of the food dollar increased one cent in 2020, according to new data from USDA's Economic Research Service.
On average, U.S. farmers received 16.0 cents for farm commodity sales from each consumer dollar spent on domestically produced food in 2020, up from a revised 15 cents in 2019.
Known as the farm share, the one-cent rise is the largest increase in nearly a decade.
The marketing share goes to food-supply-chain industries that move domestically produced food.
