Upton Hopes For Disaster Designation For Additional MI Counties

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Congressman Fred Upton is pleased the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a disaster designation for Berrien, Cass, and St. Joseph counties due to weather this year that has damaged crops. He tells WSJM News the goal now is to get all of Michigan’s counties designated.

“For us, we have three counties that we accepted – Berrien, Cass, and St. Joseph counties – in large part because they’re adjacent to Indiana,” Upton said. “For the rest of the counties now, we’re going need to actually look at the actual losses because Indiana was declared a disaster area, they look at adjoining counties, which is why those three counties are included.”

Upton says once all of the yields are known around Michigan, then the disaster designation could come for other counties. The designation opens up low-interest loans to affected growers. Upton says the corn crop has been drastically reduced due to spring rain that delayed planting, and the peach crop was all but wiped out by the polar vortex in the winter. One positive — Upton says growers have told him the apple crop should be OK.