Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Despite receiving previous congressional authorization through the farm bill, the future of a network designed to provide basic outreach to stressed agricultural workers remains tenuous.
The Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network is designed to provide basic behavioral health care for agricultural workers. The care, primarily in the form of telephone hotlines such as the Iowa-based Sowing the Seeds of Hope, would be a first-line of defense against rural violence, mental illness and suicide.
Although the program won congressional approval in the last farm bill, it has not yet been granted funding through the appropriations process.
“Originally we thought this program was already obtaining money through other sources, but when we found out that was not the case, we began to work with leaders in Congress and specifically ask for funding,” said Katherine Ozer, executive director of the National Family Farm Coalition.
While nearly all Americans are feeling the pinch of a downturned economy, farmers, who have suffered through recent natural disasters and low product prices, are now also facing economic hardship. The stress has become so great that some hopeless farmers have taken their own lives.
Members of the U.S. House went on August recess shortly after passing an agriculture appropriations bill that had no funding for the Stress Assistance Network. Funding was also stripped from the appropriations bill that is making its way through the U.S. Senate.
Members of the Senate are expected to bring their agriculture appropriations bill for a vote on the floor either later today or tomorrow. If it passes without funding for the network, proponents are concerned that it might be too late.
“We would really like to see some movement in the Senate today or tomorrow,” Ozer said. “While there remains a chance that something could be mapped out, as a far as funding, during conference of the bill, it isn’t nearly as likely as it would be if one or the other appropriations bills already had provided funding.”
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