Colo. farmers demand credit help from Ag secretary

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Denver Post

BRUSH — Angry farmers and ranchers today demanded help from the federal government after a major agricultural bank collapsed, forcing them to renegotiate millions of dollars of loans in less than a month.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said he freed up $253 million for operating loans that could help farmers searching for credit after federal regulators shut New Frontier Bank in Greeley last month, but he added that it will be up to other local banks to jump in and pick up those loans.

He said banks are still hesitant to provide agricultural loans, despite the federal stimulus program.

"They've got to get back in the game," Vilsack told about 300 people who attended a town hall meeting today at the Morgan County Fairgrounds.

Gary Teague, a 42-year-old rancher who runs a cattle-feeding and heifer-development operation based in Fort Morgan, tearfully told Vilsack that thousands of farmers and ranchers are desperate after the Greeley bank collapsed. He said he runs a $50 million business that employs 155 people, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has given him 30 days to renegotiate his loans, or they will be liquidated.



Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12344023

[Earth_First]

1. It's probably best that we do not turn our backs on the folks that feed us...

Good lord, help these folks. I am willing to bet that nary a small minority of people have the slighest idea where their food comes from. The struggle that the farmer has during the BEST of times is hardly anything that most of us understand. Now during their moment of despair, it really is nothing short of our responsibility to make sure that these folks survive.

YOUR survival depends on it!

Thanks for posting this, Rambo!

[Dappleganger]

2. They are no more deserving

than anyone else who needs help. You know some of these farmers get lucrative subsidies at taxpayer's expense, so I'm not inclined to advocate throwing money at them unilaterally just because they are suffering from the same economic difficulties as the rest of us. If the banks won't loan to them then the pressure needs to be raised, but see the banks aren't loaning to US either, raising rates and lowering CL's even though they are getting bailed out. My guess is somehow they will also try to get more $$ to take advantage of the farmer's situation and probably not even pass it along. Call me a skeptic but all of these bailouts are wearing me thin.

[avaistheone1]

3. The small family farmer deserves and needs our support.

The big agricultural/industrial farms do not.

[Dappleganger]

4. Definitely agreed!