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Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I come to the floor today to discuss the urgent need for Congress to provide relief for recent agricultural disasters.

I appreciate that circumstances around the appropriations process have changed somewhat since we prepared these remarks, but what I really want to do this afternoon is to highlight the devastating experiences of New Hampshire growers this year and explain why it is so urgent for them that Congress provide disaster relief.

In New Hampshire, our growers have faced an unprecedented difficult year. A late frost on the evening of May 18 caused enormous damage to fruit crops across New Hampshire but especially to our apple orchards.

These photos really depict what happened to most of the apple crops in New Hampshire. You can see that these almost look like chestnuts as they are so small and stunted and brown. In this, you can barely make out that it is an apple, and you can see the size of them based on the impact from the frost.

This event followed an extreme freeze in February that wiped out virtually 100 percent of our peach crops and other stone fruits.

My office has been hearing from apple growers who lost 80 to 100 percent of their crops this year as well as from New Hampshire growers who lost up to 100 percent of other crops, such as peaches, pears, plums, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, and cherries.

For people who think ``Well, you don't have that many orchards in New Hampshire,'' we have the largest apple orchard of New England in New Hampshire.

This is a big concern for our farmers in the State, and they make up a considerable percentage of our small businesses. What we have seen is total crop losses for some growers and near-total losses for others.

The business impact of such catastrophic damage goes way beyond the direct cost of damage to the crops because, in New Hampshire, we have a strong tradition, as I know they do in other States, of families who visit their local orchards every year to ``pick your own'' apples and other fruit. For local farms, these visits aren't just about that actual apple picking; it is an opportunity to showcase everything their farms have to offer, to display other products for families to purchase--vegetables that have grown during the season, baked goods, apple cider, applesauce. Everything that can be made from apples is available at those farm stands.

Apple picking marks the start of autumn in New Hampshire. We are currently well into September and what should be apple-picking season. This past weekend should have seen busy crowds at farms across New Hampshire, with families apple picking, eating cider doughnuts, and sipping apple cider, but, sadly, this was not the case.

I heard from growers like Trevor Hardy from Brookdale Fruit Farm in Hollis, who called his counterparts at Meadow Ledge Farm in Loudon, at Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, and other orchards to learn that it wasn't just his farm that lacked the usual bustling energy of children and families on the farm. Local growers across the State, like Windy Ridge Orchard in North Haverhill, are concerned that families won't come this season for their annual farm visits, and the total resulting revenue losses will be enormous.

For a lot of families--and my family is no exception--going to the local pick-your-own orchard to get whether it be apples or pumpkins or vegetables is an annual event. My daughter and her four children have had pictures taken in the pumpkin patch in the nearby farm every year that those kids have been home.

I had a chance to meet with a number of farmers last Friday. One of the things they talked about was the concern that they have longtime customers who are not going to be able to enjoy their farms this year because of the impact from the frost. New Hampshire growers are estimated to be facing as much as $20 million in disaster-related impacts from these freeze events. This estimate doesn't even include the ongoing impacts to vegetable growers and forage crops from flooding and excessive moisture. The total cost for that is still being tabulated.

This is the Brookdale Fruit Farm, which is the biggest orchard in New Hampshire. It is in Hollis. It is the biggest orchard in New England. We can see this is a rainstorm that happened about 2 weeks ago, and you can just see the water cascading through the orchard because of the flooding. The impact that this is having on next year's crop, on vegetables, is really still being tabulated but is excessive across the State.

I am hearing from longtime New Hampshire growers that they have never seen crop damage this bad before. Last week, when I visited with farmers, I went to Apple Hill Farm in Concord along with a number of apple growers from different regions in the State. Chuck and Diane Souther, who own Apple Hill Farm, showed me the severe losses their apple crops have suffered this year. They showed me apples that looked very much like these apples. They told me about the devastating effects of the late frost on their orchards and how they stayed out all night on May 18, during the freezing-cold temperatures, to try to protect their crop and save as many of their trees as they could. They told me in heartbreaking detail about the impact on their businesses and how disappointed they are not to be able to provide apples to their annual customers.

I hope that families in New Hampshire will still visit their local orchards. Some still have some apples to pick, and they still have other products to buy and other activities for kids to enjoy. In a year like this, we need to support our local farmers more than ever.

Before I close, I want to read some comments from a letter that was shared with my office from Ken Merrill, who is an apple grower in Londonderry, NH. His family owns and operates Oliver Merrill & Sons, which is a fifth-generation farm in Londonderry. They specialize in growing apples and other kinds of fruit as well as other products. I think his comments here really show the experience of so many growers in New Hampshire this year.

Ken says:

I am writing you this letter on Labor Day 2023. Labor Day weekend is usually a busy time on the farm. The farm stand is packed with people buying apples, peaches, and other fruit. Some years Pick-your-own apples is beginning and people are coming to the orchard for outings.

Not this year.

I am sitting in my office, writing this letter, because there are no peaches or other stone fruit, pears, and few apples.

At least 95 percent of the apple blossoms were killed by a severe frost on May 18, 2023. The peaches and stone fruit were killed by an unusually cold night in February.

The consequences of these weather events are dramatic. The farm stand is operating at a reduced level selling the few vegetables we grow.

Most years we hire three to five people for the harvest season to pick, pack and help sell the crop. This year, we have to tell the people that have worked for us for many years that there were not jobs for them.

We have had to cancel all our wholesale contracts with supermarkets, no apples.

We have had to stop selling to other farm stands we have sold to for years as well as telling the New Hampshire Food Bank that we had nothing to sell them this year.

This is the first time in more than 50 years, since I have been associated with the family business, that we have not had an apple crop.

Ken's experience reflects that of almost all of our growers in New Hampshire.

In July, the Secretary of Agriculture declared a Federal disaster for New Hampshire growers as a result of the frost. However, for agricultural disasters, as the Presiding Officer knows, there is no Federal relief that is automatically triggered even after the Secretary of Agriculture has declared a Federal disaster.

Instead, Congress must specifically appropriate funds. There is plenty of precedent for this. In 2023, Congress provided $3.7 billion for agricultural disasters that had occurred in calendar year 2022, and in 2022, Congress provided $10 billion for agricultural disasters that occurred in 2020 and 2021.

Federal disaster relief is particularly urgent for farmers like those in New Hampshire who are underserved by existing Federal agricultural programs. In fact, many of our apple growers don't even have crop insurance because they have found that it doesn't really work for their businesses the way it is currently structured.

I hope we can come together to support appropriations bills, but I hope we can also come together to provide the urgently needed relief funding for our farmers--those who have been so affected in New Hampshire and New England.

I urge my colleagues to support this effort and to ensure that agricultural disaster relief is enacted promptly.

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