Posted on 03/22/2025 5:51:14 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
After Donald Trump won the presidency again, Rebecca Carlson was counting on this being the year things turned around for her 1,300-acre farm in northern Michigan.
The farm has been in her family for generations but has struggled over the past several years amid the rising cost of fuel, fertilizer and other operating expenses. Then, last year, bad weather wiped out much of her crop. But the return of Trump, she thought, would help reverse things.
Her farm had been awarded a grant worth $400,000 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help pay for the costs associated with hiring seasonal workers from overseas through the H-2A visa program, which farmers have used for years to hire temporary agricultural workers.
It's backed by $65 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan, a Covid stimulus bill passed in 2021.
But now, funding for that program appears to be frozen.
Carlson was planning to use her USDA grant money to hire 10 temporary workers from Guatemala to help with this year’s harvest. The grant would help pay to house the required workers on her property and the visa fees and airfare to fly the workers to and from the U.S.
To prepare for the workers arrival, including renovating housing on her property to bring it up to code, Carlson has already spent $200,000 of her own money that she was expecting to get reimbursed under her grant’s contract. Without that money in her bank account, she doesn’t expect to have the funds to get through the growing season.
“We’re at that point where if we don’t get this funding, there could be issues of bankruptcy,” she said. “The American farmer is failing right now because you’re freezing funding meant to help the American farmer.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Sign...keep trying AP. This lady will be OK. However, with this pathetic try to defend a corrupt gubmit, you won’t.
Now that’s a real truck. Hope they make it, as fuel and fertilizer costs will come down.
Saw NBC and stopped reading.
could hire Americans instead of flying in foreigners.
Lol at these daily “voter betrayed” stories.
Must be the AP talking point of the week.
Yesterday it was fishermen wanting gubmint money.
Why should all of us pay for this woman’s bad business plan? If she can’t make money, sell it to someone who can!
NBC (Nothing But Crap) “News”
Suddenly The Lying, Dying Fake News Liberal Media - NO Lie They Won’t Tell wants to practice “Journalism”, finding a few people supposedly hurt by Trump policies.
You know it was much easier to find Angle Moms during F*ck Pedo José Xiden’s Reign of Error but I don’t recall a single story by NBC or the rest of the LibTaint media.
Wish I could get $400K of somebody else’s money to run a business with.
Earn your own damn money...you bunch of grifters.
That's farming, toots. Always has been, always will be. If you can't make it through years like this without Socialism, perhaps you should examine your farming abilities.
Exactly.
The farm has been in her family for generations
Seriously, lady - your grandpa would be ashamed.
Apparently, she wasn’t listening to Tru.ps 4 year speeches, about cutting government.
Doesn’t look like any of them have missed a meal.
EXACTLY.(P)
This poor farmer happens to be a multi-millionaire. She lacks the business skills necessary to manage a farm covering two square miles, but rather than accepting responsibility she whines that American taxpayers somehow owe her.
Overseas workers?! At $5 an hour I’ll bet. There are Americans that will do the job. Aren’t there?
Yep, it’s not like they don’t have collateral for a loan, the land and farm have been in the family for generations. From the looks of the picture, her hand her family could use a little physical labor themselves.
Her farm had been awarded a grant worth $400,000 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
Some of the commenters here missed the point: this farmer was awarded a grant, and she acted on that finding to "pull up her bootstraps" after a bad year. How does this differ from homeowners depending on FEMA? I'll tell you one difference: FEMA didn't make a promise, it just paid lunch money to disaster victims.
So, from where I sit, the US government is acting in bad faith to a businessperson who got caught in a crossfire between liberal and conservative ideologies. This is a US Citizen (I assume, based on the claim of multi-generation ownership) running a tax-paying business, and not some grifter or foreigner.
I do hope the Department of Agriculture revisits this grant.
Why the sled in the summertime?
Why should Americans be funding her farm to hire non-Americans?!?
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