Roma (NEV CS/33), 30 agosto 2020 – “Dopo lo sbarco di questa notte, con oltre 300 persone arrivate a Lampedusa, la situazione sull’isola è innegabilmente insostenibile, in primis per i migranti, costretti, dopo quello che hanno passato, in una struttura sovraffollata ma anche per i residenti e i turisti – dichiara Paolo Naso, coordinatore di Mediterranean Hope, programma migranti e rifugiati della Federazione delle chiese evangeliche in Italia, presenti a Lampedusa dal 2013 – . Noi dal canto nostro siamo impegnati negli sbarchi, ad aiutare le associazioni e le istituzioni a gestire i primi momenti degli arrivi di queste persone. Chiediamo a gran forza che vengano subito attivate reti anche provvisorie per l’accoglienza immediata dei soggetti più vulnerabili.
Farmworkers pick strawberries at Lewis Taylor Farms, which is co-owned by William L. Brim and Edward Walker who have large scale cotton, peanut, vegetable and greenhouse operations in Fort Valley, GA, on May 7, 2019.
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Mr. Brim talks about the immigration and disaster relief challenges following Hurricane Michael. USDA helped this farm with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) for structural damage cleanup. He also mentions the importance of having Secretary Sonny Perdue, a person with agricultural background, come visit and listen to 75 producers six months ago, in southern Georgia.
The farm’s operation includes bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, strawberries, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and a variety of specialty peppers on 6,500 acres; and cotton and peanuts on 1,000 acres. Near the greenhouses is a circular crop of long-leaf pines seedlings under a pivot irrigation system equipped with micro sprinklers. Long-leaf pines are an indigenous tree in the Southeast. Growers are working to increase the number of this slower growing hearty hardwood tree in this region.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung. Original public domain image from Flickr