|
 PRESS
RELEASE
For Immediate
Release
June 20,
2008
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For More Information: Jill
Krueger: email
or
651-223-5400 | | |
New Farmers' Guide to Disaster Assistance
Available
|
 ST. PAUL, MINN.
- A familiar resource has been thoroughly revised and updated
for farmers who are struggling in the face of natural
disaster, and for farmers who want to learn more about the
disaster assistance programs included in the 2008 Farm Bill.
Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) announces that the
sixth edition of its book, Farmers' Guide to Disaster
Assistance, is now available.
"This updated sixth edition of Farmers' Guide to Disaster
Assistance provides farmers current information on
important legal issues such as program eligibility,
obligations of farmers who participate in the programs, and
appeal rights," says Jill Krueger, a FLAG staff attorney and
one of the book's authors. "We were able to include
an overview of provisions from the 2008 Farm Bill in the
introduction, and to add key points in the discussion of
each affected program. But we won't know all of the details
until USDA publishes regulations for the programs."
Farmers' Guide to Disaster
Assistance includes an easy-to-use chart that
provides an overview of federal disaster assistance for
farmers. Individual chapters provide detailed descriptions of
programs offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(including housing assistance and disaster unemployment),
federal crop insurance, the Noninsured Crop Disaster
Assistance Program (NAP), the Emergency Conservation Program
(ECP), disaster assistance programs for livestock producers,
Emergency Loans from the Farm Service Agency, the Disaster
Set-Aside program for existing loans from Farm Service Agency,
Small Business Administration disaster loans (including both
home and business loans), as well as brief discussions of
bankruptcy and federal income tax issues as they relate to
losses caused by natural disaster. A new appendix addresses
considerations unique to organic farmers.
The book uses clear language and detailed
citations to applicable laws to help farmers and their
advisors understand and obtain federal disaster assistance.
Updated information will be posted on the FLAG website.
The book can be downloaded by chapter at
no charge from FLAG's website. A bound copy of
the book is available without cost to financially distressed
Minnesota farmers by calling 1-877-860-4349. For other
persons, the charge is $40 per book, and orders can be placed
by calling FLAG's office at 651-223-5400 or by visiting the
FLAG website at www.flaginc.org. The book is
also available on CD for $10. |
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FLAG is a nonprofit law center in St. Paul, Minnesota,
dedicated to providing legal services to family farmers and
their rural communities in order to help keep family farmers
on the land.
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