IARN — A Senate Agriculture Committee member provides an update on agricultural markets affected by coronavirus, as well as federal support for each sector.
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Friday visited Sully Locker & Market, as part of her 99 County Tour. Ernst visited with Rick and Cheryl Nikkel, who took ownership of the locally owned slaughter and processing facility in May.
“(I’m) hearing concerns from our meat industry, at the local level and understanding some of the issues they have faced,” Ernst said. “What we’ve seen is a big surge of people bringing their livestock into these local processors, (which is) a good thing. The Nikkels are just getting started, so it’s a big boom for them.”
Senator Ernst has since returned to Washington, D.C. to work on a phase four coronavirus relief bill. Agriculture remains among her top priorities.
“One of the priorities in my request to various committees is that we are supporting our farmers,” Ernst said. “We’ve had success with the Commodity Credit Corporation, and making sure we’re getting dollars distributed to our farmers. We need to continue that; we are not through the pandemic yet. We have not yet seen supports for ethanol and biofuels, and that’s something else I would like to see in the support packages.”
Senator Ernst also plans to prioritize rural broadband and healthcare.
“Clinics and hospitals in rural areas have suffered during COVID-19. We want to make sure we’re able to support those heatlhcare systems, but also rural broadband,” Senator Ernst said. “We’ve seen people teleworking, (and) they’re doing telemedicine and telelearning. We need to make sure our most rural areas have that rural broadband capability as well.”
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
