Duvall testifies before U.S. House Agriculture Committee
by Jennifer Whittaker

Georgia Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall testified before the U

The purpose of the hearing was to examine the results of disaster conditions in various regions of the country.
“We, the farmers in Georgia, are in desperate need of some help. Farmers have been adversely affected by three things this year, and all three of them could have stood alone as their own disaster,” Duvall testified. “First, we had the untimely Easter freeze, then the spring wildfires in South Georgia, and third the extreme record breaking drought in our state.”

Duvall told the committee that agricultural production losses due to the freeze are estimated at about $260 million, and the record-breaking drought has caused additional losses of about $800 million as of July, according to the UGA Center of Agribusiness & Economic Development. The Georgia Forestry Commission has reported losses of $60 million in timber lost in the wildfires and estimates the replanting costs to be around $30 million. Written comments Duvall submitted included about 20 pages of additional data detailing the losses Georgia commodities have sustained from 2007 disasters.

As he testified, Duvall took the panel on a tour of Georgia telling the stories of farmers who have been affected by disasters this year. He told the committee how the disasters have impacted North Georgia apple producers, row crop farmers, hay, livestock, horticulture and pecan producers. Duvall explained that Georgia has only received about 19 inches of rain for the whole year compared to the 35 inches the state normally receives by this time of year.

“Georgia Farm Bureau supports the concept of a permanent disaster program being included in the farm bill, but not if it means taking away from our regular farm programs,” Duvall said. “We are going to have disasters, and we need to make sure that agriculture is strong. Around Atlanta we are hearing a lot about endangered species. I tell you today that the endangered species we should be worried about is the small family farm.”

Visit http://gfrn.net/testimony.htm to read Duvall’s submitted testimony or view his testimony.

On Oct. 26, the USDA designated 10 Georgia counties - Baldwin, Chattahoochee, Dooly, Harris, Jones, Marion, Muscogee, Putnam, Talbot and Washington - as primary disaster areas. All of Georgia’s counties have now been declared primary disaster areas. The USDA declared the other 149 counties as primary disaster areas July 31. To receive a disaster designation, a county must have incurred a loss of 30% or more in dollar value for all crops, a single crop or group of crops.