Farmers

This holiday season you can help farmers in your backyard and around the world by being an environmentally conscientious shopper. When you purchase locally grown or fair trade products, you can make the environment a better place while helping area producers, foreign farmers and their families have happier holidays. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture reported one of the biggest contributing factors to greenhouse gas emissions is food transportation. It said the average piece of food Americans consume travels just under 1,500 miles from producer to consumer.

The USDA has announced sign-up for the new Livestock Compensation Program (LCP). This ad hoc disaster program will provide benefits to farmers and ranchers who suffered losses caused by natural disaster. LCP compensates livestock producers for feed losses occurring between February 1, 2005 through December 31, 2005, due to drought conditions suffered during that time. To be eligible livestock under LCP, livestock must be: â?¢ dairy or beef cattle; buffalo or beefalo, equine, poultry, elk, sheep, goats, swine, or deer, that; â?

The restructuring of housing loans is thought to be a way to help millions of Americans who are threatened with foreclosure stay in their homes. But those of us in agriculture ask, "Where is the assistance to family farmers, with both land and houses, who also need loan assistance and loan restructuring?" This has been a glaring oversight in the congressional debate. Like most Americans, farmers are suffering from the economic downturn. As we enter the 2009 growing season, prices for farm products continue to decrease, while the cost of producing a crop increases.

LIBERTY - A partnership with the Somerset Community College, the University of Kentucky Agriculture Extension Service and the state is providing farmers in Casey and Russell counties with free computers and 12 hours of training on how to use it. The state has allotted 36 computers for farmers in the two counties, according to Alesa Johnson of the college Office of Community, Workforce and Economic Development. The program is being funded with Kentucky Agricultural Development funds.

The 2007 drought has taken its toll on farmers across the bluegrass, and Jessamine County farmers were no exception. "It almost destroyed our business," said Mary Stevens, along with her sister Joan, who owns a farm off U.S. 68. "Everything just dried up and died. " The Stevens sisters weren't alone in their plight. "We don't have anything this year, the dry weather took everything," said Richard Clem. "The cold ruined the strawberries early (spring), and the drought took all the vegetables.

To the editor, There is a wind of change blowing through Jessamine County. It is a breeze of progress and money, there are those here who support it and others that wish it to pass. Jessamine County has been a farming town for a longtime. Now it seems people forget that and want to be "little Lexington," a bedroom community for Fayette County with their high-priced houses on five acres and gated hamlets that only the well-to-do are allowed to pass through. I am not a farmer, but I know that farmers have built this town into what it is today.

A common element among businesses with superior safety records is a written safety plan that helps to identify and correct hazards. In order to ensure the safety and health of yourself, your workers and your family, it is critical that Kentucky farmers make safety and health inspections a priority in your business. Even more important, you must take immediate action to fix any unsafe or unhealthy situations you find. Accidents occur haphazardly. Safety occurs systematically.

We all go to the grocery store and come home with a big haul. We stop to pick up the paper; we shop at the local farmer's market, make a quick trip to the store to pick up a new thermostat. Has anyone stopped to think what these items have in common and what would we do without them? They all are either agriculture products or are associated with them. Plastics and ink are made from soybeans and the food that we buy is direct from the farmer. It seems any more that all you can see for miles is land being developed.

To the editor, It has come to my attention that there are farmers under attack for using propane cannons. I personally do not live in the country, but I do shop quite frequently at one of the local produce stands. I hear their cannon every time I am there, and it doesn't bother me (I know its purpose). I also hear the one across the road (this farmer lost his entire crop to birds last year). It is nothing more than a muffled sound if you are not standing next to it. These people work their land and have every right to protect their crops at any cost.

The state of Washington may be two-thirds of a continent away, but the implications of the discovery of beef there infected with mad cow disease earlier this month are most certainly being felt locally. For local beef producers, it could get worse before it gets better. United States Department of Agriculture officials announced last week a case of mad cow disease had been identified for the first time in North America, and beef sellers and buyers alike have cast a wary eye on the market to see what would happen.