By Doug Cunningham
Agriculture in Michigan and across the country has been hit with a one-two gut punch of tariffs and the federal government shutdown. And that’s on top of Michigan’s farm economy being down over 70 percent over the last five years according to the USDA.
John Kran is National Legislative Counsel for the Michigan Farm Bureau. The government shutdown has cut off payments from a $12 billion dollar Farm Service Agency program that was meant to lessen the impact of the Trump tariffs. Kran says the longer the government shutdown lasts the more impacts on Michigan farmers will increase.
“We did get an announcement from the USDA that a certain number of Farm Service Agency offices around the country will be opening for three days so that farmers with some outstanding issues can get in and get some of these issues resolved. In your area it looks like Berrien Springs and Paw Paw should be open for a couple of days.”
Kran says if the government shutdown continues long enough the Farm Bill will be harder to implement on time, and that affects Michigan farmers in a big way.
“Big picture, we hope that Congress and the administration can work through this impasse as quickly as possible and that they can get back to focusing on other big issues that need attention. Primary issues for our members like trade, immigration policy, infrastructure, other big things that we all need Congress to work on and get accomplished as well.”
The longer the government shutdown goes on, Kran says, the more problems Michigan farmers will face.
