Farm Service Agency staff members from North Dakota have made it their goal to volunteer their time, service and money to help farmers in need. For several years, staff members have volunteered with Farm Rescue, an organization that provides planting and harvesting assistance to farm families that have experienced a major injury, illness or natural disaster. FSA employees provide lunches to workers and emotional support to the families.
Maykia Yang (right), is trying to educate Hmong farmers in North Carolina about Farm Service Agency programs. Pictured with Maykia is her husband Jim (left) and son Marcus.
By Eddie Woodhouse, Public Affairs Specialist, N.C. Farm Service Agency
It’s not a pleasant memory for Maykia Yang. Fleeing on foot from her native home of Laos at age eight and following her family to Thailand where she spent two years in a refugee camp.
“My father was a soldier and worked for the CIA during the [Vietnam] war. After the CIA pulled out, the Vietnamese took over Laos and we fled on foot for about a month,” said Yang, who now owns a chicken farm in North Carolina.
It was the challenges in her path that led her to become an accomplished farmer, but it was her willingness to help others that made her become a voice for minority farmers in her state. Her success prompted Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to appoint her as a voting county committee member for the Moore County FSA office in North Carolina and she was also selected to serve on the USDA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers advisory committee. Continue reading
The California Farm Service Agency celebrated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with delicious ethnic foods, video recordings, traditional dancing, personal stories from staff members of their family heritage and a fashion show. An Asian/Pacific Island market of traditional fruits, vegetables and other products were on display with nutritional information and recipes. –By Joanne Fong, Assistant to the CA State Director. CA
Acting Deputy Secretary Michael Scuse took off his jacket and put on his hat to gear up for the 18th annual USDA Farmers Market.
Tropical Storm Andrea didn’t wash out the official opening of the USDA Farmers Market on Friday as more than 200 people gathered inside the Whitten Building to witness the ringing of the bell. This year marks the 18th season of the USDA Farmers Market that will hosts 13 vendors from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. “This farmers market helps meet the growing demand for fresh food and provides smaller producers an opportunity to have an additional source of income,” said acting Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse. Continue reading
Only a week remains for producers to sign up for the 45th general Conservation Reserve Program. Producers can sign up by June 14 to receive cost-share assistance to plant long-term, resource-conserving covers and receive annual rental payment for the length of the contract, which is 10-15 years. For the past 27 years, CRP has become one of the largest conservation effort with 27 million acres enrolled in the program. Those acres have improved water and air quality, prevented soil erosion and increased populations of pheasants, quail, ducks and rare species like the sage grouse and lesser prairie chicken. Those interested should contact their local FSA county office to sign up. Learn more or locate a county office
Producers have until Friday, June 7, to apply for the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) program for 2011 crop losses. The program provides crop disaster assistance payments to eligible producers on farms that have incurred crop production or quality losses. Producers should visit a local Farm Service Agency county office to apply. Learn more or find a local county office.
The Office of Personnel Management has established an emergency program to allow the transfer of unused annual leave to be donated to employees in the same agency or in another agency. Under an executive order by President Obama, the emergency leave transfer program will allow federal employees to donate leave to those in Oklahoma and other states hit by natural disasters. The donated leave allows victims take off from work without having to use all of their paid leave. Read more (Government Executive).
The USDA Commodity Credit Corporation, which helps stabilize, support and protect farm income and prices, released interest rates for June 2013. The borrowing rate-based charge is 0.125, which is unchanged from May 2013, while the 1996 and subsequent crop year commodity and marketing assistance loans dispersed during May is 1.125, unchanged from last month. Interest rates for Farm Storage Facility Loans and discount rates for the Tobacco Transition Payment Program also are available. Read more.
Dear Mr. Secretary:
At the age of 13 I told my Junior High guidance counselor that I wanted to be a dairy farmer. Considering I grew up in a town along the Massachusetts coast on an acre and a half may have had something to do with her “smile.” In July of 1976, at the age of 20, I was milking seven cows on a rented farm. My parents took out a second mortgage on their home and soon I was milking 35. In the fall of 1978, a barn fire put me back to square one. Continue reading
The prospect of a federal pay raise for civilian employees was not included in two appropriation bills cleared by the House spending committee, but the raise isn’t entirely off the table. The two approved bills — one for Veterans Affairs and the other for Homeland Security — leave open the possibility to provide the 1 percent raise proposed by President Obama in his 2014 budget proposal. Federal employees are in their third year of a pay freeze in addition to furloughs at some federal agencies. Read more (Government Executive).
