Produce farmers also have been impacted by Ida, said Brian Breaux with the Louisiana Farm Bureau. Many growers use greenhouses, which are susceptible to hurricane-strength winds. Then there is the problem with finding housing for seasonal workers who harvest the crops.
"We have had an issue where some of our worker housing has been damaged by the storm," Breaux said. "It has been a chore to find places for our workers to reside. In the hardest-hit areas, a lot of the rooms have been reserved for power and debris cleanup folks."
Growers that sustained damage may have crop insurance, but Breaux said most produce farmers go without. "These growers, especially the produce farmers, normally take it on the chin," Breaux said. "A lot of time, they’re normally the forgotten souls."
Natalie Faust Jones, with Faust Farms in Amite City, is one of those growers. She doesn't carry crop insurance and knows of no other produce farmer that does. She estimates 50% of their fall crop is a total loss. In addition to strawberries, which the area is known for, Faust Farms grows eggplants, bell peppers, cabbage, and hydroponic lettuce.
"Strawberries is our biggest crop," Jones said. "Thank God we didn’t have those in the ground yet." Instead, her eggplants took a severe beating, pummeled by Ida's unforgiving winds. "It looks like someone took a shotgun and just shot through them because there are holes in the leaves," she said. "It’s too late in the game to say, 'go replant.' So whatever we lose, it will just be a loss."
According to Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain, about two-thirds of the state's fruit and vegetable production is in the Florida Parishes. It's difficult to measure what the economic impact of Ida will be for agriculture until harvest, he said. Some of it depends on how the weather behaves in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, he described a promising network of "farmers helping farmers," with organizations across the country donating hay, feed, supplies, fuel, and fence posts. Through "everyone working together, it really makes a huge, huge difference," he said.
Read the complete article at www.theadvocate.com.
