{"id":195183,"date":"2020-03-26T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=195183"},"modified":"2020-03-26T08:01:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T13:01:00","slug":"ndfu-statement-covid-19-legislation-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=195183","title":{"rendered":"NDFU statement: COVID-19 legislation, aid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-126050\" src=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/WatneMark-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/WatneMark-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/WatneMark-260x175.jpg 260w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/WatneMark.jpg 445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Jamestown\u00a0 (NDFU)\u00a0 \u2013 North Dakota Farmers Union (NDFU) praised provisions that support family farmers and ranchers in the \u201cPhase III\u201d COVID-19 legislation passed by the U.S. Senate late last night. NDFU President Mark Watne says, \u201cWe have been pushing for continued and additional aid due to the extreme financial difficulties farmers and ranchers are under,.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The legislation includes $14 billion to reimburse the Commodity Credit Corporation, which has been used to fund the Market Facilitation Program in recent years. It also provides an additional $9.5 billion to support livestock, dairy and specialty crop producers and local food systems.<\/p>\n<p>Watne adds, \u201cOur farmers and ranchers are feeling the economic impact from the pandemic, continued trade issues and low market prices. We\u2019re particularly grateful to Sen. Hoeven\u2019s responsiveness to our concerns and for leading efforts to secure critical funding to support our producers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The legislation will set the stage for a new program to offset livestock producers\u2019 losses. Since Jan. 23, live cattle prices have dropped by roughly $30 per hundredweight, despite strong beef demand at grocery stores.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Watne says, \u201cLive cattle prices have fallen off the cliff and it\u2019s been devastating to our ranchers.\u00a0 We also need the Department of Justice to investigate price fixing by meatpackers, and why live cattle prices are falling when boxed beef prices are climbing. Market manipulation can\u2019t go unchecked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Watne noted the trade war will continue to have long-term impacts to markets, especially with surplus grains already in storage. \u201cIt will take a few years to sort out the extra supply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The legislation will now move to the House of Representatives before ultimately making its way to the President\u2019s desk.\u00a0 Watne says, \u201cOnce a final package is signed into law, we hope USDA will craft programs that provide fair and equitable relief, and the funding will be enough to keep producers afloat.We will continue to monitor the situation closely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamestown\u00a0 (NDFU)\u00a0 \u2013 North Dakota Farmers Union (NDFU) praised provisions that support family farmers and ranchers in the \u201cPhase III\u201d COVID-19 legislation passed by the U.S. Senate late last night. NDFU President Mark Watne says, \u201cWe have been pushing for continued and additional aid due to the extreme financial difficulties [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195184,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195183\/revisions\/195184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}