The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation has decided not to cover crops lost in last year’s flooding if they had not yet reached maturity, and that has Senator Charles Schumer fuming.

The lawmaker recently called on the federal agency's adjusters to “correct their interpretation” of the crop insurance provisions so farmers’ entire crops would be covered regardless of the state they were in when they were damaged.

“This is a time when Orange County’s black dirt onion farmers need a helping hand, not bureaucratic bean counting,” said Schumer. “After suffering torrential floods and a severe drought, it’s unfathomable that the black dirt farmers are now suffering a potential knockout blow from the very government agency meant to protect them.”

Schumer said the FCIC should change its “absurd policy” and financially cover every part of a farmer’s crop loss, regardless of the state of maturity it was in.

Re-printed with permission from www.midhudsonnews.com