8 counties receive agricultural disaster designation

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated Butler, Darke, Defiance, Hamilton, Mercer, Paulding, Preble and Van Wert counties as natural disaster areas due to excessive rain and flooding in the region in 2015. With this disaster designation, agricultural producers in these counties are eligible to be considered for assistance from the Farm Service Agency (FSA), including emergency loans. Eligible farmers have eight months from the date of the official disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans and can receive guidance in applying for these loans from their local FSA office.

“Ohio producers whose livelihoods are threatened by no fault of their own rely on the Farm Service Agency’s emergency loan program to manage risk on their farms and continue to provide a reliable food supply for Ohio and the world,” said Brown. “This federal assistance will help producers in western Ohio rebuild and get back on their feet.”

Brown is the first Ohioan to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in nearly 50 years. In 2014, he was part of the Senate Farm Bill Conference Committee that successfully negotiated a five-year farm bill that had been stalled for more than three years.

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