Postal Service Lapses Impact Del. Agriculture

The Delaware Farm Bureau wants the US Postal Service to step up its game.

Leadership with the Farm Bureau have sent a letter to members of the state’s congressional delegation detailing their concerns about delays in mail service and how they can affect agriculture.

Already, Senator Chris Coons has testified about some of the many complaints his office has received, including eggs, chicks and turkeys arriving late, expired, or dead.

Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Coons talked about a letter written by Farm Bureau member Trebs Thompson of Newark, an egg farmer with Whimsical Farms:

“Trebs wrote, ‘Largely our postal service has been a jewel. It handles a large volume of mail cheaply with a high degree of speed and accuracy. Many of us depend on it for paperwork, medications, orders, payments and, for farmers like me, seeds and day old
chicks. The post office has been shipping day old chicks to farms like mine,’ Trebs wrote, ‘for over 100 years. Today, all 20 baby hens arrived cold and lifeless. I cried as I opened the box. The postal supervisor cried. The gentleman who normally delivers my
mail apologized profusely but it’s not his fault. Whatever one feels about mail in ballots or politics,’ she wrote, ‘I’m asking you to put this aside and do what you can to restore the postal service.’ Madame President, Trebs Thompson is right. No farmer should ever have to open a box of dead chicks.”

The Farm Bureau says it will continue to advocate for the needs of Delaware’s farmers and ranchers and press the case for change at the USPS.