|
Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Richie Farmer applauded U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns’ announcement to scrap a plan to close more than a third of Kentucky’s Farm Service Agency offices. He also thanked the congressional delegation that fervently opposed the U.S. Department of Agriculture plan, which pegged over 700 FSA offices for closure across the country.
“Most of the FSA offices scheduled to close in Kentucky are located in rural areas,” Farmer said. “With today’s high gas prices, closing them would make it a real hardship for farm families in those areas, who would be forced to drive greater distances to get to the nearest office.”
Starting next month, the USDA had planned to close more than 30 of Kentucky’s 90 FSA offices through 2007, according to the FSA, causing the loss of 46 jobs. Some of the employees from Kentucky offices that were scheduled to close attended a listening session on the 2007 farm bill on Aug. 31 in Louisville. Some took the microphone and publicly expressed their opposition of closures to Johanns.
Johanns made the announcement not to pursue the closures Tuesday prior to a similar listening session in Moultrie, GA. The downsizing plan was meant to save taxpayers money, since the end of the burley quota system last year lessened the workload for many Kentucky offices. Because of that, some of Kentucky’s closures could still take place.
|
