Connecticut officials are working with farmers to fix flood damage.
Gov. Ned Lamont has requested federal disaster relief, and according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), it has the full support of the state’s federal delegation.
The state has received more than 10 inches of rain this month. That’s four times the normal average.
Lamont has submitted a request for federal agriculture disaster declaration. That would unlock emergency federal loans — but Blumenthal wants more.
“I can pledge that our delegation will be fighting tooth and nail to make that disaster declaration happen and make it extend the most possible assistance, not just loans,” Blumenthal said. “But whatever kinds of grants and subsidies we can.”
If the request is approved, farmers will have eight months to request a loan.
Twenty-seven farms in the state are estimating losses that spread more than 1,500 acres and more than $20 million in lost sale revenue.
Blumenthal said the federal disaster relief will help in the short term, but U.S. laws need to be changed to better support those small businesses.
“Many of these farmers, and I've talked to a number of them, simply are not covered by insurance,” Blumenthal said. “Right now they have no insurance. And that is because our present crop insurance system favors the bigger farms in the Midwest growing one crop, as opposed to New England farms that have multiple.”
