USDA dithered for a month before making big purchases of farm products for food banks, even as need soared

A Florida farmer plows under his cabbage crop.
(Politico photo by M. Scott Mahaskey)

"Tens of millions of pounds of American-grown produce is rotting in fields as food banks across the country scramble to meet a massive surge in demand, a two-pronged disaster that has deprived farmers of billions of dollars in revenue while millions of newly jobless Americans struggle to feed their families," Helen Bottemiller Evich reports for Politico: "While other federal agencies quickly adapted their programs to the coronavirus crisis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture took more than a month to make its first significant move to buy up surplus fruits and vegetables — despite repeated entreaties."

Farmers and ranchers have been struggling for weeks as shifting supply chains often left them without a feasible way to sell their crops or livestock, while demand at food banks has increased an average of 70 percent. The USDA said in mid-April that it will spend $3 billion to buy fresh produce, meat and dairy to distribute to food banks. But purchasing has apparently not increased in the past six weeks, Evich reports. Federal officials predicted it would take about a month before the food could be bought, packed and shipped, but by then, it will be too late for product that needs to sell now.

"Images of farmers destroying tomatoes, piling up squash, burying onions and dumping milk shocked many Americans who remain fearful of supply shortages," Evich reports. "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."

Evich writes, "The Agriculture Department said it has moved expeditiously to respond to the crisis," but "Department officials declined requests to discuss the government’s approach to capturing the perishable food glut."
Today, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he would make an effort to find users for milk that his state's dairy farmers are dumping, largely because the pandemic has lowered demand from restaurants and schools.