A Connecticut farmer riding his tractor to Washington D.C. to seek state and federal changes to crop insurance met with Republican lawmakers outside the state Capitol in Hartford on Friday.

Will DellaCamera, the owner of Cecarelli's Harris Hill Farm in Northford, said he's frustrated with the response from state and federal Department of Agriculture officials after a hailstorm destroyed his vegetable farm in August.
“Unfortunately, yesterday I was given some bad news that I was only going to possibly receive $42,000 from the USDA for trying to pay off $410,000 worth of bills,” he said.
“So that’s only added fuel to my fire of what I am trying to do here and not only reform our state department of agriculture but our United States department of agriculture,” DellaCamera said.
Republican House Minority leader Vincent Candelora met with Dellacamera.
He’ll push for a bipartisan working group to seek ways to better help farmers, he said.
“We’d like the department of ag to join us in that conversation to figure out where these pitfalls are at the federal level and how Connecticut can fill the gap,” Candelora said.
Lawmakers could consider resurrecting a proposal made last year by Senator Cathy Osten, the Democratic co-chair of the Appropriations Committee.
The proposal had called for bonding $20 million to create a revolving fund to assist farms affected by natural disasters.