At least 75 farms had been soaked and greater than 1,000 acres of crops misplaced after heavy storms earlier this week in Western Massachusetts, state agriculture officers mentioned Friday morning.
Torrential downpours blanketed a lot of New England, resulting in harmful flooding in Vermont and Western Massachusetts, the place farmers reported widespread injury. Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ahsley Randle mentioned it’s “absolutely heartbreaking” to see the devastation in Massachusetts.
“We have boots on the ground to get an accurate scope of the damage so we can continue working with our local, state, and federal partners in assisting our farmers who continue to face these challenges,” Randle mentioned in an announcement. “Despite these recent tragedies, we know our farmers are resilient, and we encourage consumers to continue supporting their local farms that support the communities they serve in so many ways.”
State officers had been scheduled to go to farms in Deerfield, Florence, Hadley, Sunderland, and Whately “to complete assessments of impacted farms.” Randle met with 30 farmers in Deerfield, Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton on Wednesday.
Randle requested farmers to share injury studies together with her company to guage the extent of the injury.
“Farmers are encouraged to contact MDAR Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Staff Alisha Bouchard at [email protected] and Director of Produce Safety Michael Botelho at [email protected] with a report,” the division mentioned.
Flood warnings and watches had been in impact Thursday for many of Massachusetts because the National Weather Service predicted extra heavy rains.
The flood is one other incident of maximum climate impacting farmers this 12 months, the agricultural assets division mentioned. Subzero temperatures in February destroyed crops, together with peachers and different pitted fruits.
“Farmers were hit hard again in May when a late frost happened for three days, causing significant losses to blueberry, strawberry, and apple crops,” the company mentioned. “The results of these disasters threaten the local food system and will have negative repercussions on our local economy.”
A pair of Western Massachusetts state lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to incorporate tens of millions in catastrophe reduction funding for affected farmers and municipalities in a July spending invoice the House handed Thursday.
Rep. Natalie Blais, a Sunderland Democrat, tried to earmark $20 million within the invoice for an agricultural catastrophe reduction fund “to provide direct assistance to farmers in the commonwealth who have suffered agricultural losses, financial losses, or property damage caused by an event of force majeure that occurred after Jan. 1, 2023,” the textual content of her modification mentioned.
But high House Democrats excluded it from the invoice, together with one other Blais modification that might have directed $1 million to the Town of Colrain for storm-related damages on Jacksonville Road.
Legislators additionally determined in opposition to together with $4 million in funding for storm-related emergency repairs for North Adams, Clarksburg, and Adams. Rep. John Barrett of North Adams filed the modification to the spending invoice.
Blais mentioned it was unattainable to place a definitive financial price to the damages related to the story solely two days afterward and with extra rain within the forecast. Some farms, like Natural Roots in Conway, have turned to on-line fundraising to get well from the damages.
“We’ll continue to work with farmers to refine the financial losses and acres impacted in the days and weeks ahead,” Blais informed the Herald. “But with climate change, we will continue to see more frequent and intense storm events. Farmers have not only battled drought and floods in recent years but earlier this year, fruit crops were lost due [to] … severe frost events.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”