Telling Your Story
This idiom indicates that something is extremely difficult, time consuming, bureaucratic, is a slow process and requires patience.
In this situation, "It Will Take an Act of Congress" is true both figuratively and literally.
The AgrAbility program, which has walked shoulder to shoulder through some difficult and emotional situations with farmers, is eliminated from the president's proposed budget. Only if Congress returns it into the budget will AgrAbility continue to work with farmers, families and farm employees who have a physical impairment of any type.
The number of farmers with physical impairments and limitations is astounding! It is a fact I never realized until I began working with the program. So yes, my interest in this is personal. It is also personal in the fact that Mr. Berens was assisted through the process and qualified for help through Michigan's vocational rehab services. It was AgrAbility that drove the process, made the recommendations, was the bridge in turning a plan into reality, and guiding through a confusing, bureaucratic maze.
Let's talk about numbers. National Ag Statistics Service indicates there are 1.5 traumatic injuries per 100 farmers, not including farm workers. An even larger component of disabilities comes from chronic or temporary medical conditions like arthritis, coronary artery disease, cancer, COPD, diabetes, stroke and neurological conditions. People in the 21-64-year age range have disabling conditions at the rate of about 13%. The 65-74-year age range is nearly 25%, and nearly half of those are 75 years and older. Considering the aging farm population, the numbers of people in agriculture with disabling conditions is surprisingly large.
What is inspiring is to see former clients continue and even thrive in their farming and ranching ventures after implementing tools and equipment that help them accommodate their conditions. A very tiny budget appropriation has made immeasurable financial and personal impact over the 35-year program lifespan.
Walking with people beyond medical trauma is very personal and private; people do not wish to share their limitations and struggles, simply admitting the need can be traumatic and humiliating. It's a personal space that strangers are not easily let into, but it's a space where AgrAbility staff eventually become trusted friends through the process of acquiring tools and equipment that will help the individual continue their work and passion for agriculture.
I've experienced relief personally as Mr. Berens worked through the process. Tractor seat upgrades made a huge difference in physical recovery time after spring fieldwork. Upgrades to cattle handling equipment meant safety to handlers and reduced stress to livestock.
The stories are real, personal and impactful. Unfortunately, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins believes the program is based on race, immigration status and equity/inclusion when I asked her about this particular budget cut during her trip to the MSU dairy last week. She crisply sounded off her disdain for any program based on diversity, equity and inclusion funded by our tax dollars and the way the American people want them spent. Her understanding seems to be based on fragments of DOGE algorithms that miscategorized AgrAbiity into something that it is not.
As a friend and former AgrAbility client said after we talked about the encounter, "I thought AgrAbility was based on my ability to get on my tractor, not the color of my skin." Well said.
Therefore, it will take an act of Congress to include this program for farmers and farm employees back into the budget.
When I began working with the AgrAbility program in Michigan 13 years ago, it did occur to me that the Lord was possibly preparing me for something—a "something" that might affect myself or my family. That thought haunted me on occasion during the time with AgrAbility. That foreshadowing came true. The space between then and now has opened my eyes to the world of physical impairment and how people adapt so they can continue to provide for themselves and their families. It has magnified my empathy for everyone carrying the burden and living with impairments.
If you've seen, heard or experienced firsthand the impact AgrAbility has had on you personally or people in your community, a call to your congressperson is the only avenue to keep this rural program alive. Please help me light up their phone lines!
Bev Berens is a freelance writer and empty nester from Vestaburg, Mich. She can be contacted at uphillfarm494@yahoo.com.