Town Crier “Briefs from the Region” (1) – 7/9/21
Montana farms are in trouble, something that’s been validated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s declaration of drought emergency for 15 additional counties. This brings the total to 31 counties under emergency out of the state’s 56 total counties. Gov. Greg Gianforte has put pressure on the Department of Agriculture to declare a federal emergency for the entire state. “I appreciate Secretary Vilsack responding to my request and designating additional Montana counties as natural disaster areas, but there’s more USDA needs to do now to help our ag producers,” Gianforte said in a statement, as reported by the Helena Independent Record. “With every region of the state facing severe to extreme drought conditions, I continue to call on USDA to declare the entire state a drought disaster area.”