As a farmer, I’m depending on Congress to support our flailing industry | Opinion

In farming, the unknowns that impact all we grow and raise are largely known unknowns: weather, blights, even trade disputes. They are risks we are familiar with and have learned to mitigate over centuries.

But nothing could have prepared us for the havoc on our business model that the COVID crisis wreaked. What started out as a year expected to bring the customary roller coaster of temperatures has instead given us an economic house of horrors with no exit in sight. Our regular customers, largely the over 1 million restaurants across the country, have closed due to the pandemic, leaving harvests to rot and American farmers, gardeners and shepherds like me devastated.

The sum of this industry’s losses impact over 15.6 million jobs in the United States. But that number hardly tells the story of the individual impact on the people it represents.

» READ MORE: It’s peak season for farm workers in South Jersey, but some remain frustrated with COVID-19 safety guidelines

My livelihood is the raising and harvesting of lamb, based here in Pennsylvania. I left a promising career on Wall Street to pursue my passion, farm life, and even survived my own health crisis to find relative success as a purveyor to some of the top restaurants in the country. I know this success has everything to do with not only my passion, but the depth of my commitment to the animals I raise. Every breath of life a sheep on my farm takes contributes to the end quality of the harvest, and, while I can’t speak for my fellow farmers, I believe most have a similar outlook on the products they reverently present for discerning consumption.

I also believe that each farm, small business and worker in our country is to our economy what the air is to my flock. Each livelihood is a breath of life to the wealth of our nation, its people and its traditions. To witness our collective struggle for air is heartbreaking; to gasp for each breath myself tests every ounce of commitment I have poured into my farm.

This is why I, along with thousands of other small businesses are asking Congress to give us a lifeline. Just as farmers must mitigate the unforeseen droughts and floods, our leaders must mitigate the consequences of a near economic shutdown. Specifically, farmers like myself are counting on legislators to support a program to access insurance payouts for business interruption policies that businesses so desperately need—and have paid for.

» READ MORE: Coronavirus has sparked a comeback for old-fashioned milk delivery in the Philly suburbs

To make that happen, we’re supporting the Business Interruption Relief Act of 2020, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Without the critical safety net provided by federal legislation, thousands of businesses across the country will be forced to close their doors permanently, dealing a devastating blow to millions of American workers and suffocating every sector of our economy.

We now wait for our policy makers to do the right thing, what we’ve elected them to do: represent our needs by passing the appropriate legislation. Many of us have sought to adapt, selling to the public through online purveyors or Community Supported Agriculture at a great loss. These solutions have certainly helped, but they are only half-measures when what we need is an overarching cure. We have traded dollars for pennies in order to survive, but we cannot rely on life-support forever.

This is why it is so urgent for Congress to act. Over 100,000 small businesses have already closed due to COVID. Every minute without this bill is another minute spent grasping for life.

America’s farmers are resilient. But in order to bring our economy back from the brink, we must mitigate our crisis now with policies on the federal level that give air to the small businesses that are the lungs of our economy.

Keith Martin is the owner and operator of Elysian Fields Sheep Farm and Pure Bred Lamb. A self-proclaimed “shepherd,” Martin is an advocate for humane treatment of his lamb, found pre-COVID at restaurants across the country.