August 7, 2024 ····· ··············································Vol. 1, Issue 10

Territory Spotlight: Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

The Southern region of the Farm and Ranch Assistance Network (FRSAN) includes 13 southern states as well as the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.


Puerto Rico has a population of 3.22 million people with 7,602 farms on the island, according to the 2022 Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture, which is the most recent data available. The U.S. Virgin Islands, comprised of the primary islands of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas as well as several smaller islands, has a population of 105,413 with 565 farms (2018 USVI Census—also the most recent data).


U.S. Virgin Islands


The U.S. Virgin Islands Dept of Agriculture (VIDA) was awarded farm stress funding known as a state expansion grant. They elected to subaward a portion of their grant funds to SAgE to ensure the VI project integrated seamlessly with regional efforts.


Puerto Rico


In Puerto Rico, SAgE has partnered with Miguel Marxuach, executive director of Alianza por Agricultura/Alliance for Agriculture, and lead researcher Dr. Natasha Sagardia Beltran of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. The work in Puerto Rico has focused on a rural community school called CampoSofia that serves around 30 families in the Utuado region.


Read more

Illustration by Matt Stevens

SAgE Resources


The SAgE resource database is at the heart of what we do as we focus on alleviating farm stressors on a variety of fronts—from health care, to animal care, crops to cash flow, tax guidance, finances, and much more. Our resources team is hard at work adding new resources all the time. Don't see your state listed here? Keep your eye on this space, or head to our website. If you’d like to recommend a resource, you can do that here.



Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Mississippi

North Carolina

Tennessee

Submit Resources Here

Recent SAgE Webinars

We've had some great webinars in the past few weeks! If you've missed them, you can watch them on our YouTube channel or on our website. Click on the titles below to view.


Can You Relate? Florida Ag Stressors and the Impact of GIS


Content Analysis of Extension Mental Health Information in the Southern Region


Climate Change and Farmer Mental Health: A Participatory and Systems-Based Approach


Affirming Black Affirming Black Farmers: A Journey of Resilience and Assets through Appreciative Inquiry

The SAgE Applied Research Webinar Series brings in researchers, practitioners, and farmers to discuss topics important for understanding and addressing farm stress. 

Sign up to get emais about future webinars!

SAgE Partner Spotlight


SAgE partner Tiffany Dowell Lashmet and Texas A&M AgriLife have created a new video series: Where's the Beef?, funded by the Southern Risk Management Education Center. This installment features Halo H Cattle in Graham, TX. Watch here.

News from the Ag World

A Breakdown of the Food Dollar: Where Does the Money Go?


The marketing bill series breaks down the dollar into two things: the farm share and the marketing share. The farm share measures the amount of farm commodity sales, and the marketing share is the market value added to farm commodities. The most recent data about food dollars is from 2022.


In 2022, the farm share was 14.9 cents of each food dollar expenditure and the marketing share was 85.1 cents. That is close to a record low for farmers.


Image courtesy of the USDA’s Economic Research Service

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Faith Group Partnering With Local Farmers on Land Return Initiative


As Central Appalachia continues its transition away from a coal-based extraction economy, several obstacles continue to slow that process – not the least of which is land access.


With nearly two-thirds of all privately owned land in McDowell County, West Virginia, held by ten out-of-state companies, the long, exploitative cycle of absentee land ownership continues to stunt any hopes of local economic self-determination.


However, a new land access initiative championed by the local faith community in partnership with Economic Development Greater East (EDGE) is looking to change that. 


Photo via edge-us.org

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Tropical Storm and Hurricane Recovery Resources


Has your agricultural operation been impacted by a hurricane? USDA is here to help you prepare for and recover from hurricanes, Tropical Storms, Tropical Depressions, etc.

USDA offers a suite of disaster assistance programs that can help with recovery, including:

  • Emergency assistance for livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish
  • Livestock indemnity
  • Noninsured crop disaster assistance
  • Tree assistance
  • Farm loans
  • Emergency relief


Read more

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