Corn damaged field by derecho storm in IowaThough it received bipartisan support in the House Agriculture Committee, a provision providing farmers assistance for crop losses stemming from last summer’s derecho was stripped from the latest aid package in the House much to the chagrin of farm-state lawmakers from both parties in both chambers of Congress. The measure didn’t add cost to the aid bill, but earmarked some of its $4 billion allocation for “the food supply chain and agricultural pandemic response.” The derecho inflicted around $7.5 billion in damage to farms and ag infrastructure, damaging around 850,000 crop acres and destroying around 100 million bushels of on-farm and commercial grain storage, according to USDA estimates. The Senate is expected to open up the full bill to potentially add ag disaster aid for not just farmers hit by the derecho, but those in other regions hit by things like wildfire and drought. See more on the story out of Congress.