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Senator hopes GAO report leads to changes
US Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio says he’s hopeful there will be some changes after the release of the US Government Accountability Office report on USDA’s Market Facilitation Program.
“I hope this report wakes some people up,” he says. “The USDA knows what they’re doing. The secretary of agriculture is from Georgia and it turns out the report said Cotton growers in the south got 40 percent of their market price even though they didn’t have more impact on trade.”
He tells Brownfield he’s heard many concerns from farmers.
“We found the money overwhelmingly, disproportionately went to the large farmers and southern farmers,” he says. “It’s been unfair to corn and soybean farmers in my region of the country in Ohio and the Midwest.”
The USDA says payments rates were based on trade damage, not by region or farm size.