Newhouse: Farmers Appreciate Help But Look Forward To Getting Back To Business

Last week, the USDA announced over $470 million in purchases through the Section 32 Food Purchases and Distribution program. And a variety of local commodities were listed as products the USDA would purchase, including asparagus, dairy, pears, potatoes and many others.

Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse says he’s very grateful for the help from the USDA and all of the work Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue has done to assist farmers impacted by COVID-19, but, “As a farmer myself, I got to say nothing is going to be better than us getting back into business and returning to some kind of normalcy in our economy.  But this is certainly good news to help us bridge the gap until we get past this crisis that we’re facing with the pandemic.”

Newhouse added there is a lot of anxiety in farm country right now, so any certainty that can be provided is much appreciated. He added agriculture has not received the resources it deserves, and he hopes into the future, farmers will get additional help to keep their operations running.

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