Category: Coronavirus

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told lawmakers this weekend that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is ending the Farmers to Families Food Box program. However, the United Fresh Produce Association was critical of the decision.

Here’s its statement:
On behalf of the millions of Americans who gained access to healthy fresh produce throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are deeply disappointed in USDA’s decision to end the food box program.

This decision is shortsighted, and comments disparaging the program are a slap in the face to the thousands of volunteers, non-profits, regional food distributors and farmers who worked together in communities across the country to deliver healthy foods to people in their time of greatest need.

For a major new program put together rapidly in a time of crisis, the food box program certainly included challenges. Yet, hundreds of community non-profits and nutrition advocates have found delivering fresh produce directly to those in need has great potential to truly make a difference in the health of millions of Americans.

Speaking personally, United Fresh has worked with small farmers, distributors, food banks and community organizations over the past several months to submit more than 30 recommendations to USDA on ways to improve efficiency, accountability and assured delivery of high-quality produce to people in need.

Yet, it is apparent that USDA neither considered these recommendations nor listened to the wide range of support for the program in its recent public listening session. This sudden decision seems more a political statement repudiating a program begun in a former Administration than an objective evaluation of the program’s ability to improve Americans’ health.

Ending the program abruptly rather than looking for ways to continue funding and to improve its execution is a terrible mistake as the COVID crisis has most seriously impacted those with diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes, with greater hospitalization rates and even death compared with healthier populations.

Now that the Administration has ended this program, USDA bears a tremendous responsibility to develop new programs to get fresh, healthy foods to people in need.

We cannot afford to go back to old, tired feeding programs that do not prioritize nutrition security as much as calorie security.

It is time for bold action to address the nutrition health crisis facing our nation, and USDA needs to lead the way.

Last year it was ensuring worker safety in the early stage of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the focus is making sure workers have access to vaccines.

It’s a tale of two seasons but one constant remains – COVID-19, says Allison Crittenden, Director of Congressional Relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

“I think if you zoom out to when the pandemic first started, we were very concerned about the ability of our workers to even get to our farms and be able to work. As soon as they got here, we were incredibly concerned and put measures in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus and prevent anybody from getting sick. Not only do we care about these individuals and their health, but with labor intensive agriculture, you have to have the workers there to help you plant the crop and harvest it,” Crittenden said. “If folks are not feeling well or if they have coronavirus, that can certainly limit the folks that are able to get the job done on the farm.

“We care about our employees, and we want to make sure we’re able to produce our food supply. We know we can’t do that without them. It’s really important that these essential workers have access to vaccines, so we don’t have to deal with any of the uncertainties that we did in our last summer and last growing season and harvest.”

Education is Key

Crittenden said American Farm Bureau Federation has joined the White House COVID Community Corps, which centers on vaccine messaging and encouraging people to get their shot. She’s hopeful that by being part of this educational initiative, they’ll have access to tools to help people understand the vaccine’s benefits.

“We know that farmers and ranchers and their employees haven’t had the option to telework, because of that, that’s why we’ve advocated for food and Ag to have prioritized access to the vaccine. We’re very pleased that supply is ramping up. Now that we’re moving, hopefully, away from demand concerns, we’re able to focus our effort only on continuing to make sure food and Ag is prioritized. But we also want to ensure folks in agriculture understand the importance of getting the vaccine and that it’s safe and effective,” Crittenden said.

President Joe Biden also bumped up the deadline for all adults to be eligible for the vaccine by April 19.

“It certainly sounds like things are opening up when it comes to vaccines and vaccine availability,” Crittenden said. “We certainly recognize it’s a medical choice and voluntary. But we want folks to understand this is an important step to finally being done with this pandemic.”

By Mary Leigh Oliver

AUBURN UNIVERSITY, Ala. – Alabama farmers continue to be impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. To help offset some of that financial loss, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) second Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) is reopening for enrollment on Monday, April 5.

The first CFAP began with 13,386 applicants. The USDA provided more than $94 million in payments to Alabama producers. CFAP 2 began in the fall of 2020. A total of 13,561 applications were approved in Alabama for payments totaling more than $92 million.

CFAP 2

The same CFAP 2 program from last fall will be reopening out of concerns that not all producers were aware of the program’s details and eligibility. According to Alabama Cooperative Extension System Specialist and Assistant Professor Adam Rabinowitz, some producers received insurance and other disaster loss payments in 2019 that affected their initial eligibility.

“To account for these issues, the program will be reopening to allow new applicants and revised applications,” Rabinowitz said.

Agricultural producers of more than 250 commodities who share in the risk of producing a community are eligible for this program.

Registration

Applications will be available online beginning April 5. For producers who do not currently have a relationship with FSA, there will be additional information to complete.

Source: Alabama Extension

The COVID-19 pandemic forever changed how businesses are conducted across the country. Just as much as any other industry, agriculture suffered from the pandemic’s impact.

As restaurants closed their doors and schools’ closures kept children at home, farmers lost a significant portion of their clientele. A year later, they have had to adjust to stay afloat.

They will have to continue to diversify their operations moving forward, believes Robert Guenther, Senior Vice President, Public Policy, United Fresh Produce Association.

“You need to be looking at, not just being focused on food service, not being focused on just a few commodities, you need to make sure you’re looking at a wide range of your customers’ needs,” Guenther said. “That could be food service, that could be retail, that could be grab and go. You see a lot of the food service side that, maybe you never thought about this, they’re doing more of the boxed pick up for customers. A lot of that was probably in the mindset or business model to think about five to 10 years from now. But I think you’re seeing that accelerated in terms of adapting to this model moving forward.”

What Worked?

Growers have had to think of alternate ways to market their produce during the COVID pandemic. Boxed produce was a success for some growers looking to offload some of their excess produce. Stories of long lines of cars waiting for their produce were not uncommon.

For some producers, thinking outside the box was the only way they survived this pandemic. But hopefully it has provided them ideas on how to pivot their farming operation if they need to do so again.

“I still think there’s lessons to be learned. We’re still in this pandemic,” Guenther said. “Schools are just starting to open back up. So we’re starting to see a movement back to some type of normalcy. Hopefully, that will continue the remainder of this year and into 2022.”