Rep. Troy Carter Meets with Farmers, USDA Employees
By Ashlyn Austin
Louisiana Farm Bureau News
Rep. Troy Carter (D, Dist. 2) is back in his district planting sweet potatoes with Leory Conish, a produce farmer in St. James Parish.
Conish gave him tips on how far apart to drop each seed potato in the row. Despite being accustomed to getting his hands dirty in Washington, D.C., Carter said getting his hands dirty in this field is a good thing.
“The value of being in nature and knowing that you’re producing a product that’s going to feed the world is really fulfilling,” Carter said.
Carter is back home, touring many different agricultural sites. He believes that the two most pressing issues for agricultural producers is the Farm Bill not being passed and cuts to the USDA.
“I just left a farmer who said, ‘I can’t go to the bank because we don’t have the stability and the programs that we do have in the federal government have been frozen or cut,’” Carter said. “So, it’s hurting every aspect of the farming industry, whether it’s (USDA) employees or farmers having access to federal dollars and the ability to get their crops to market. It’s not happening.”
According to Conish, he has been waiting for a grant to help rebuild the greenhouse on his farm.
“The programs that were cut eliminated a lot of opportunities and also caused a lot of farmers irreparable harm because they had planned on receiving funds designated and appropriated by Congress to be distributed and dispersed,” said Conish. “My grant proposal scored the highest in the state and was forwarded to DC. It was supposed to have funds around last October, but everything’s kind of been in limbo.”
Carter stopped by the USDA Service Center in Donaldsonville on his tour to participate in a roundtable discussion. According to staff at the Donaldsonville office, this was the first time a congressional representative had visited. The office is suffering from shortfall in staff and budgeting which directly impacts farmers and the programs which they rely on.
“Implementing these conservation practices and helping farmers every day is extremely difficult now that we are at standstill,” said Patrick Frischhertz, an Iberville Parish sugarcane farmer. “It disproportionately impacts the employees here that are doing the right thing for the farmers and the people of our community. It’s heartbreaking to see this and incredibly frustrating of the uncertainty of it all.”
During the conversation, Frankie Sotile. Jr., an Ascension Parish sugarcane farmer, said he was thankful for the congressional visit and Carter's desire to work for a new Farm Bill for one simple reason.
“It works, it works, it works,” Sotile said. “How many years we would have a farm bill. With everything happening in politics like tariffs. Without all of us, you [government] have got nothing to discuss about with tariffs if we cannot produce.”
The Farm Bill is not on the congressional schedule currently. At the very least, the Louisiana congressional delegation is listening.