The Government Will Spend $3 Billion to Direct Fresh Produce and Dairy to Food Banks

Ricky Jones, operations manager at Magic Valley Quality Milk Transport, walks out the door as 4,100 gallons of milk pour down the drain Wednesday, April 8, 2020, at the Azevedo Family Dairy in Buhl. With restaurants across the country closed, milk processors have lost a significant chunk of their market, leaving dairy farmers with no one to take their milk. Pat Sutphin/AP

The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

When social-distancing measures put the US restaurant industry on ice last month, the farmers who supply it saw a massive market suddenly vanish—and many had to let perfectly good food go to ruin. (In non-pandemic times, Americans spend more than half of their food dollars of meals prepared outside the home.) Meanwhile, the unprecedented spike in unemployment made millions of people unsure of where their next meal would come from, causing huge lines at food pantries nationwide

On Friday, US Department of Agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue announced a program to address both issues at once—one I suggested a week ago (although I doubt the former governor of Georgia is a Mother Jones reader). Attending President Donald Trump’s daily coronavirus press conference, Perdue announced that the USDA would buy $3 billion worth of “fresh produce, dairy, and meat products,” to be “distributed to Americans in need for food-bank networks, as well as other community and faith-based organizations.”

Perdue didn’t mention in it the press conference, but in statement emailed to journalists Friday, the USDA announced the purchases would be delivered to food banks in “pre-approved boxes of fresh produce, dairy, and meat products.” The release offered no details about the boxes. It’s unclear whether the administration plans use this new program to test out the idea of replacing cash food aid with pre-packed “harvest boxes”—a concept widely reviled by anti-hunger advocates as inefficient and disrespectful of recipients.

On top of the food purchases, Perdue added, the USDA will spend $16 billion “in direct payments to farmers, ranchers and producers who experienced unprecedented losses during this pandemic,” Perdue added. He offered no details on how the department would decide which farmers qualify for the payments. During Trump’s trade wars in 2018 and 2019, the administration handed a total of $8.6 billion in direct payments, mainly to soybean growers who had seen exports to China plunge because of high tariffs imposed by China. An analysis by Environmental Working Group found that 10 percent of recipients—many of them wealthy owners of large farms—received more than half of the allotted funds.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate