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Grassley: farmers can’t wait for aid, crisis echoes 1980’s collapse

Republican members of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee recently met to discuss potential “bridge” payments to help farmers through the slumping ag economy.

Iowa’s Chuck Grassley tells Brownfield the private meeting took place Thursday.

“Where we came to the conclusion as we told each other what we thought was a critical situation, similar to the 1980’s with dropping land prices, increased interest rates and low farm prices, that something has to be done.”

He suggests farmers cannot afford waiting two or three years for help.

“Like it did in the 1980’s, and in the meantime we had 20,000 farmers go out of business (and) a lot of farmers commit suicide. We don’t want that to happen again.”

Grassley says a meeting with President Trump has been requested.

“And I hope that meeting is set up, I hope it can happen next week (so we) can tell the President to his face the plight.”

When asked by Brownfield how the bridge payments might be funded, Grassley said Ag Secretary Rollins is focused on figuring that out.