HOLLAND (WTHC-AM/FM) — U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph is praising the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretarial designation of 43 Michigan counties as primary natural disaster areas, including Berrien, Cass, and St. Joseph, and 31 other counties as contiguous disaster counties, including Kalamazoo and Van Buren.
This responds to excessive rain, flooding, and extreme temperatures earlier this year.
Upton joined a bipartisan letter urging support for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s USDA Secretarial Disaster Designation request for the state of Michigan. Earlier this year, Upton visited a number of farms in southwest Michigan to see the damage from the extreme weather firsthand and to raise awareness of the need for the disaster designation.
This Secretarial disaster designation gives farmers in eligible counties eight months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans. Here is the link for making an application: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-loan-programs/emergency-farm-loans/index
