U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently brought good news to the Black Dirt region of Orange County announcing that federal funding will be allocated to New York state farms.
Pine Island onion farmer Chris Pawelski worked with Gillibrand in 2019 to craft the Relief for Small Farmers Act. During her press conference held at Pawelski”™s farm Aug. 29, Gillibrand announced that critical parts of the Relief for Small Farmers Act were included in the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act, allocating $5.6 billion in debt relief and assistance to the nation”™s farmers.
“Like many farmers across New York, Chris came to my office to talk about problems he was determined to fix”¦extreme weather events were hurting business and making it extremely difficult to pay back loans and expenses. Then the pandemic hit, making it worse for farmers and making it nearly impossible to keep their businesses afloat,” Gillibrand said, adding that “New York”™s 30,000 farms are vital to the state”™s economy while delivering billions to the GDP. Congress has taken steps to help the nation”™s farmers with recently passed legislation that will aid farmers who experienced discrimination in the USDA Farm Lending program.”
