USDA let millions of pounds of food rot while food-bank demand soared

[marble falls]

USDA let millions of pounds of food rot while food-bank demand soared

State officials and growers say Trump’s Agriculture Department has been woefully slow to respond to farm crisis caused by coronavirus.




A tractor pushes cabbage into the ground shown April 23 near Belle Glade, Fla. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

By HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH

04/26/2020 07:00 AM EDT

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/26/food-banks-coronavirus-agriculture-usda-207215

<snip>

Images of farmers destroying tomatoes, piling up squash, burying onions and dumping milk shocked many Americans who remain fearful of supply shortages. At the same time, people who recently lost their jobs lined up for miles outside some food banks, raising questions about why there has been no coordinated response at the federal level to get the surplus of perishable food to more people in need, even as commodity groups, state leaders and lawmakers repeatedly urged the Agriculture Department to step in.

Demand at food banks has increased an average of 70 percent, according to Feeding America, which represents about 200 major food banks across the country. The group estimates that 40 percent of those being served are new to the system.

In mid-April, USDA unveiled a long-awaited $19 billion aid program with $3 billion set aside to buy excess food, a pot of money that would cover a major ramp-up of fresh produce purchases, along with dairy and meats. But federal officials predicted it would take the better part of a month before that food is packed and shipped to food banks and other nonprofits in need. At that point, it will be too late for many produce growers who saw a huge drop in demand right at the peak of their season.

<snip>

Department officials declined requests to discuss the government’s approach to capturing the perishable food glut. A spokesperson noted that the department distributes about $2 billion in agricultural products every year to schools, food banks, tribal organizations and others. That number doubled to $4 billion last year as USDA bought up more commodities to help compensate farmers harmed by the trade war.

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The department did not make any fresh purchases in response to that request, according to USDA records. Perdue has yet to respond to the letter.

[kentuck]

1. There will come a time this fall and winter when they will pray they had that food.

If the food chain breaks down. This is a disaster. And no reason for it.

[Igel]

2. There's a reason for it.

Congress can't allocate Monday on Tuesday and have workers and boxes in the fields by Tuesday, with trucks there that evening to pick it up. If nothing else there are rules that we insist be followed (whenever we hear of a rule being broken by Trump it's a horrible thing) in hiring, procurement of things like boxes and truck rental. And oversight requirements--documenting everything. I know teachers who deal with homebound kids and they object to the restrictions and documentation requirements necessary to make sure that they don't steal from the district and claim an extra mile.

We have crops in the field with no workers in the US. Look at what Macron did. Organized a mass busing of people from urban areas out to the countryside. Hundreds of thousands of people volunteered to go and work in the fields. Yes, buses full of people from cities, with higher infection rates, getting on buses and heading out to rural areas. What could go wrong?

Local farmers in some places in the US, I've read, are doing the same organizing. Can't get immigrant seasonal workers? Recruit locals that are forced to stay at home--hire them. Of course, hired they lose benefits. And they'd have to work in the fields--running tractors and combines if they have the skill, dealing with dirt if they don't.

I'm sure a lot of farmers would be happy to let food banks send volunteers and trucks to pick up what they can carry away, if the choice is that or plowing the crops under.

[marble falls]

3. That covers one week. What about the last month?

[MoonlitKnight]

4. We have a bunch of labor and trucks at bases all over the country

We could be putting the military to use here. Nobody does logistics better.

But that would take leadership.