{"id":183861,"date":"2026-03-09T08:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/183861\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:01:10","slug":"florida-farmers-hit-hard-by-historic-freeze-as-usda-unlocks-disaster-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/183861\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Farmers Hit Hard by Historic Freeze as USDA Unlocks Disaster Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFlorida Farmers Hit Hard by Historic Freeze as USDA Unlocks Disaster Aid<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a title=\"Haylie Shipp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aginfo.net\/reporter\/44\/Haylie-Shipp\" class=\"thumb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Haylie Shipp\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/user_61f3041c0e02c005840304_300_300.jpg\" class=\"img-thumbnail float-right\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFlorida\u2019s agriculture industry is getting federal help after historic winter freezes caused billions in damage across the state.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a USDA disaster declaration supporting Florida producers impacted by the freezes. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson thanked federal leaders for acting quickly, saying the declaration recognizes the scale of the losses farmers faced.<\/p>\n<p>Simpson said, \u201cThis was one of the most damaging freeze events in Florida agriculture\u2019s history, with our preliminary estimates totaling over $3 billion in agricultural losses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The request for federal assistance began January 30, when Simpson sent a letter to the USDA ahead of a forecasted winter storm asking for quick access to federal programs for agricultural producers. Support for the request grew on February 10, when the entire Florida congressional delegation also urged the USDA to issue a disaster declaration.<\/p>\n<p>State officials later estimated more than $3 billion in losses across Florida\u2019s agricultural sectors.<\/p>\n<p>Simpson says the state will now work with federal partners to connect affected farmers with recovery resources.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Farmers Hit Hard by Historic Freeze as USDA Unlocks Disaster Aid Florida\u2019s agriculture industry is getting federal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,86580,86575,86583,86589,86579,86588,86586,86578,86584,86581,86576,30,29,86585,86582,86587,86577,86590],"class_list":["post-183861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-agriculture-disaster-aid","tag-florida-agriculture-freeze","tag-florida-agriculture-losses","tag-florida-agriculture-recovery-aid","tag-florida-crop-freeze-losses","tag-florida-department-of-agriculture-freeze-losses","tag-florida-farmers-disaster-relief","tag-florida-farmers-freeze-damage","tag-florida-freeze-3-billion-losses","tag-florida-freeze-crop-damage","tag-florida-freeze-disaster","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-historic-freeze-florida-agriculture","tag-usda-aid-for-florida-farmers","tag-usda-disaster-assistance-farmers","tag-usda-disaster-declaration-florida","tag-winter-freez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}