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Lawsuit Aims to Halt Trump-Approved GMO Labels Critics Denounce as Nothing But a 'Scam'
"Instead of providing meaningful labeling," warns the Center for Food Safety, new USDA rules "will only create more uncertainty for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers."
Dec 29, 2021
Amid an ongoing lawsuit challenging what critics call deceptive Trump-era U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations for labeling genetically engineered foods, a leading advocacy group on Wednesday announced the launch of a consumer action campaign ahead of the new rules taking effect on January 1.
"These regulations are not about informing the public but rather designed to allow corporations to hide their use of genetically engineered ingredients from their customers."
"Consumers have fought for decades for their right to know what's in their food and how it's produced," Meredith Stevenson, an attorney for the Center for Food Safety (CFS), said in a statement. "But instead of providing meaningful labeling, USDA's final rules will only create more uncertainty for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers."
CFS is set to launch a nationwide consumer campaign using "citizen investigators" to identify corporations using QR codes instead of on-package text or symbol labeling to conceal their use of GMOs. Those companies will then be pressured to adopt on-package text or symbol labeling in addition to QR codes.
The use of QR codes has been called discriminatory against millions of poor, elderly, and rural people who don't own smartphones, or who live in areas where grocery stores lack internet connections.
In December 2018, the USDA released the new labeling rules two years after the Republican-controlled Congress passed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law. Sonny Perdue, Trump's industry-friendly agriculture secretary, claimed the new standards for genetically engineerd (GE or GMO) foods would increase "the transparency of our nation's food system" and provide "clear information and labeling consistency for consumers."
Critics, however, said the regulations are an insidious attempt to conceal Big Ag's increasing use of genetically engineered ingredients in food products, and that the new rules leave most GMO-derived foods unlabeled.
"These regulations are not about informing the public but rather designed to allow corporations to hide their use of genetically engineered ingredients from their customers," Andrew Kimbrell, CFS executive director said in a statement.
"It is a regulatory scam which we are seeking to rescind in federal court," he added. "In addition, we are urging our million CFS members and others to become citizen investigators and find and expose the companies that are using QR codes instead of on-package text or symbol labeling, thereby trying to keep us in the dark about what they have put in our food."
In July 2020, CFS filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court on behalf of a coalition of advocacy groups and retailers--including Natural Grocers, which has 157 stores in 20 states, and Puget Consumers Co-op, the largest U.S. community-owned food market--challenging the USDA rules.
"A disclosure law that exempts 70% of the foods it is supposed to disclose is not a meaningful disclosure law," Tara Cook Littman of Citizens for GMO Labeling, a plaintiff in the case, said at the time of its filing. The new rules are a "fraud," she said, that allow "producers to keep their GMO ingredients secret."
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Derision, Disbelief After Iowa Meatpacking Plant Where Hundreds Caught Coronavirus Fined Just $957
The fine levied against Iowa Premium Beef—for a minor record-keeping violation—was cut in half by a state official.
Sep 24, 2020
Iowa regulators on Thursday levied their first coronavirus-related fine against a meatpacking plant--a $957 citation for a minor record-keeping violation by a subsidiary of one of the nation's biggest beef processing companies.
The Associated Press reports the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the citation to the Iowa Premium Beef Plant in Tama, where 338 of the facility's 850 employees tested positive for Covid-19 during an April outbreak that produced one of the state's first "hot spots." That's 80 more workers than the state previously acknowledged, according to inspection records.
Iowa OSHA announced on June 1 that it would investigate the Tama plant and four other meat processing facilities in the state where thousands of workers had tested positive for coronavirus. Records reviewed by the AP showed that none of the other plants were fined, despite at least nine Covid-19 deaths among them.
The other facilities that were investigated by the agency are Tyson Foods plants in Waterloo, Columbus Junction, and Perry, and the JBS plant in Marshalltown.
Iowa OSHA cited two "other-than-serious" violations committed by the Tama plant: failure to keep a required log of workplace-related injuries and illnesses, and failure to provide the document within four hours after inspectors requested it.
The fine was originally meant to be twice as high. However, Iowa OSHA Administrator Russell Perry approved a settlement with the company cutting the amount in half. Iowa Premium Beef--which last year was purchased by National Beef, the nation's fourth-largest beef processor--also agreed to correct the violations.
Observers reacted to the fine with disbelief and derision:
The first Iowa fine comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Labor Department fined JBS Foods, the U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian giant JBS SA--which, with over $50 billion in annual sales, is the world's largest meat processing company--a paltry $15,615 for failing to adequately protect workers against coronavirus.
Beatriz Rangel, daughter of Saul Sanchez--the first JBS Foods employee to die of Covid-19--called the small fine "a slap in the face."
News of the Tama fine also follows the revelation earlier this month that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the meatpacking industry collaborated to downplay and disregard risks to worker health during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue--an agribusiness tycoon and former Georgia governor with a long history of corruption--has been criticized for pushing meat processing facilities to remain open or quickly reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. The meatpacking industry in Iowa has been described as "too big too fail," wielding tremendous political power in the heavily agricultural Midwestern state.
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USDA and Meatpacking Industry Collaborated to Undermine Covid-19 Response, Documents Show
Hundreds of emails obtained by Public Citizen and American Oversight offer a rare inside look at the meat industry's power and access to the highest levels of government.
Sep 15, 2020
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the meatpacking industry worked together to downplay and disregard risks to worker health during the Covid-19 pandemic, as shown in documents published Monday by Public Citizen and American Oversight.
The documents (pdf), which the groups obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, reveal that a week before President Donald Trump issued his controversial executive order in April to keep meatpacking plants open--overriding closure orders from local health officials--a leading meat industry lobby group drafted a proposed executive order that was strikingly similar to Trump's directive.
"The USDA impeded the efforts of state and local governments to contain the virus; the blood of meatpacking workers is on their hands."
--Adam Pulver, Public Citizen
North American Meat Institute president Julie Anna Potts drafted the document, which invoked the Korean War-era Defense Production Act in proposing a presidential proclamation that orders "critical infrastructure food companies continue their operations to the fullest extent possible."
The documents also show that the North American Meat Institute repeatedly requested that USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue discourage workers who were afraid to return to work from staying home, that meatpacking plants asked the USDA to intervene on multiple occasions when state and local governments either shut them down over health and safety concerns or sought to impose worker health and safety standards, and that pork producer and food processing giant Smithfield Foods repeatedly requested that the USDA "order" it to reopen its meat processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota--even though the agency lacks the legal authority for such a move.
"While we knew that the meatpacking industry was lobbying the Trump administration to take steps to protect its profits regardless of the cost to workers' lives, the degree of collaboration these documents show is astounding," said Adam Pulver, attorney for Public Citizen.
"As outbreaks continue to emerge in meatpacking plants, it is stunning to see the cavalier attitude officials took to the health and safety of workers in the early part of the pandemic," Pulver added. "To the extent that the USDA impeded the efforts of state and local governments to contain the virus, the blood of meatpacking workers is on their hands."
According to July data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 23 states reported Covid-19 outbreaks in meat and poultry processing facilities, with 16,233 cases and 86 deaths reported in 239 facilities. Fully 87% of those cases occurred among racial or ethnic minorities. The problem is global, with other countries from Britain to Brazil reporting widespread Covid-19 infection among their meatpackers.
A common theme connects all of these outbreaks around the world, critics said Tuesday--the prioritization of profit over people.
"This is corruption that came at the cost of lives and safety. We know now that Trump knew the coronavirus was a deadly threat even while he played it down and took steps he knew were at odds with what experts advised."
--Austin Evers, American Oversight
"During a global pandemic, Americans should be able to trust that public health experts are drafting public health standards, not big businesses looking out for their bottom lines," said Austin Evers, executive director at American Oversight. "This is corruption that came at the cost of lives and safety. Making matters worse, we know now that Trump knew the coronavirus was a deadly threat even while he played it down and took steps he knew were at odds with what experts advised."
The poultry industry, already the target of a massive class-action lawsuit alleging some of the biggest animal agriculture corporations in the nation conspired to suppress worker wages and benefits, has been roiled by accusations of worker mistreatment during the pandemic.
"For us employees that work in production, we are treated like modern-day slaves," Tara Williams, an employee at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in Camilla, Georgia, told The Guardian in May.
"Excuse my language, but Tyson really aren't going to give a fuck about us at all," Williams--who has worked at the plant for five years and currently earns $13.55 an hour--said of the $22 billion company after her colleague Elose Willis, who worked at the plant for 35 years, died of Covid-19 in April.
"It was like they were keeping a secret," Williams said of Willis' death. "It took them about two weeks just to put a picture up, to acknowledge that she had died."
In related news, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Smithfield's Sioux Falls plant just $13,494 last Thursday for failing to take adequate steps to contain the virus, leading to the infection of more than 1,200 plant employees and the deaths of four plant workers between March and June. Critics said the fine isn't nearly enough.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, which represents Smithfield Foods workers, slammed the fine as "insulting and a slap on the wrist."
"How much is the health, safety, and life of an essential worker worth? Based on the actions of the Trump administration, clearly not much," said UFCW president Marc Perrone.
"This so-called 'fine' is a slap on the wrist for Smithfield, and a slap in the face of the thousands of American meatpacking workers who have been putting their lives on the line to help feed America since the beginning of this pandemic," Perrone added.
Other critics, including vegans, vegetarians, and animal rights and environmental advocates argued that the accelerated spread of Covid-19 from meatpacking facilities is but the latest compelling argument in favor of reducing--or eliminating--meat consumption.
"We know that Covid-19 originated in a meat market and that previous influenza viruses originated in pigs and chickens," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in April amid news that a Foster Farms slaughterhouse in Livingston, California was ordered closed by local health authorities due to a Covid-19 outbreak that killed eight employees.
"It's not a matter of whether using and killing animals for food will give rise to another disease outbreak--it's a matter of when," said PETA. "There has never been a better, more obvious time for businesses to put an end to their dirty trade of slaughtering animals for their flesh."
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'Cruel, Crass, and Illegal': Democrats Slam Inclusion of Trump-Signed Letters in Federal Food Boxes
"Trump and his minions have been trying to yank food from hungry children and families and he is now putting notes in pandemic food boxes to claim credit."
Sep 02, 2020
Congressional Democrats are accusing the White House of violating federal law by including a "self-promoting" letter signed by President Donald Trump in government food aid boxes, a move critics slammed as particularly cynical given the administration's ongoing efforts to rip nutrition benefits from millions of low-income Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The Trump White House is using your tax dollars to advertise on stimulus checks and food relief packages. How many more Americans could be fed if federal funds weren't used on these illegal stunts?"
--Julian Castro
"Trump and his minions have been trying to yank food from hungry children and families and he is now putting notes in pandemic food boxes to claim credit," tweeted Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.). "This is cruel, crass, and illegal but gangsters like Trump don't care."
As ProPublica reported Tuesday, "Millions of Americans who are struggling to put food on the table may discover a new item in government-funded relief packages of fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, and meat: a letter signed by President Donald Trump."
The letters (pdf), included in packages distributed as part of the Agriculture Department's Farmers to Families Food Box program, proclaim that Trump has "prioritized sending nutritious food from our farmers to families in need throughout America."
"This pandemic has brought many hardships on millions of hardworking individuals and communities through no fault of their own," reads Trump's note, which encourages recipients to adhere to basic Covid-19 precautions that the president himself has publicly flouted. "We will support America's recovery every step of the way. Together, we will overcome this challenge, and our Nation will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever before."
In a letter (pdf) to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last month, 49 House Democrats wrote that "using a federal relief program to distribute a self-promoting letter from the president to American families just three months before the presidential election is inappropriate and a violation of federal law," citing the Hatch Act's prohibition on executive branch employees using their official capacity to influence an election.
"A public health crisis is not an opportunity for the administration to promote its own political interests," the lawmakers wrote. "Likewise, a federal food assistance program should not be used as a tool for the president to exploit taxpayer dollars for his reelection campaign."
The food box letters are just Trump's latest attempt to claim credit for pandemic response measures by attaching his name to federal programs. In April, as Common Dreams reported, the Treasury Department delayed mailing tens of millions of one-time $1,200 stimulus payments approved by Congress in order to put Trump's name on the checks.
Along with the checks, Trump mailed a signed one-page letter to 90 million Americans declaring that his administration is "working around the clock to protect hardworking Americans like you from the consequences of the economic shutdown."
"I have to wonder how much personal protective equipment could have been purchased with what it cost for Trump to send out this vanity letter," one Portland, Oregon resident told the Washington Post.
Feeding America, a nonprofit anti-hunger group, told ProPublica that Trump's nutrition box letters have shown up sporadically at food banks in its network. "It's not across the board," said Kate Leone, chief government relations officer for the organization.
Mark Quandt, the executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, said that "as a non-profit, we would have to take the letter out of the boxes if they were included because we can't publicly support political candidates."
On top of concerns about the Trump-signed letter, Democratic lawmakers have also raised alarm over the administration's distribution of large federal contracts under the Farmers to Families Food Box program.
"Under your leadership, USDA has granted large contracts to middlemen that lacked the ability to deliver food they agreed to provide," Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) wrote in a letter (pdf) to Perdue last week. "Rather than focusing on addressing these problems, the administration appears to be seeking political benefits from the program, including by inserting a letter signed by President Trump in food boxes."
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'Monstrous Cruelty: As Hunger Soars, Trump USDA Resumes Effort to Take Nutrition Benefits From More Than a Million People
"The administration has decided that now—amid the most pervasive need in a century—is a great time to crack down on Americans who rely on food stamps."
May 14, 2020
With hunger rising at an alarming rate across the U.S.--particularly among children--as the coronavirus crisis sends unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression, the Trump administration this week resumed its effort to strip nutrition benefits from more than a million people by appealing a court ruling that blocked the Agriculture Department from imposing more punitive work requirements.
After briefly backing off its push to implement the rule change last month, the USDA on Tuesday filed court documents appealing Judge Beryl Howell's stay of the administration's long-sought policy, which would limit states' ability to waive work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
"Secretary Perdue and his officials at USDA continue to show their true colors when it comes to our nation's hungry."
--Rep. Marcia Fudge
While the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in March, suspended SNAP work requirements for the duration of the public health emergency, analysts have warned that the economic crisis and the need for nutrition assistance will persist long after Covid-19 is effectively contained.
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) ripped the USDA's appeal in a statement late Wednesday, saying that if Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and other Trump administration officials "had any decency or compassion, they would abandon this appeal immediately."
"Secretary Perdue and his officials at USDA continue to show their true colors when it comes to our nation's hungry," said Fudge. "The nation's unemployment percentage has seen its worst spike since the Great Depression. Jobless claims are up over 30 million. The lines at food banks have never been longer. And by any reputable account the worst is yet to come.
"The administration has decided that now--amid the most pervasive need in a century--is a great time to crack down on Americans who rely on food stamps to keep their families from going hungry," Fudge added.
By the Agriculture Department's own estimates, the rule change--which was finalized in December despite the flood of public comments opposing the policy--could strip nutrition assistance from around 700,000 people. Analysts say the actual number would likely be more than a million.
Throughout the pandemic, the Trump administration and Republican members of Congress have blocked Democratic efforts to expand SNAP benefits to meet the needs of struggling families. According to research published last week by the Hamilton Project, one in three households in the U.S. are food insecure amid the coronavirus crisis.
"These are households cutting back on portion sizes, having kids skip meals," said researcher Lauren Bauer. "The numbers are much higher than I expected."
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'Grotesque, Deadly Failure': Trump USDA Under Fire for Allowing Millions of Pounds of Produce to Rot as Food Insecurity Surges
"The Agriculture Department took more than a month to make its first significant move to buy up surplus fruits and vegetables."
Apr 27, 2020
With food insecurity on the rise across the U.S. as the coronavirus pandemic continues to drive unprecedented job losses and economic disruption, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is facing backlash from lawmakers, farmers, and advocacy groups for its failure to act with urgency as millions of pounds of produce rot in fields across the nation.
"While other federal agencies quickly adapted their programs to the coronavirus crisis, the Agriculture Department took more than a month to make its first significant move to buy up surplus fruits and vegetables--despite repeated entreaties," Politico reported Sunday, noting that the USDA's belated response came "as food banks across the country scramble to meet a massive surge in demand."
On April 17, as Common Dreams reported, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue unveiled the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, a $19 billion plan purportedly aimed at providing relief to farmers and making "mass purchases of dairy, meat, and agricultural produce to get that food to the people in need."
But critics say the federal agency's plan doesn't come anywhere close to matching the scale of the crisis, which has fueled calls for a fundamental overhaul of the U.S. food system.
"This thing is a joke," Tony DiMare, owner of the Florida-based produce distribution company DiMare Fresh, told Politico of the USDA's plan, which includes $3 billion to purchase and distribute surplus produce.
"DiMare's company... has donated over a million pounds of tomatoes to food banks in his area," Politico reported, "but he still had to leave some 10 million pounds in the field."
Nikki Fried, Florida's commissioner of agriculture in Florida, told Politico that she asked Perdue a month ago to take action to prevent mass waste of produce but received no response. "Unfortunately, USDA didn't move until [last week]," Fried said.
As early as March 23, a coalition of produce industry groups wrote a letter (pdf) to Perdue warning that "there is at least $1 billion of perishable commodities without a dedicated destinationas a result of the unanticipated closure of foodservice establishments, including restaurants, hotels, schools, and universities."
"There is no reason these high-quality, nutritious, farmer-grown products should be left in facilities to rot when there are so many American families who are suddenly faced with food insecurity," the letter stated.
Politico reported that federal officials "predicted it would take the better part of a month" before surplus food is packed and shipped to food banks, which are facing shortages and going millions of dollars over budget as they attempt to meet skyrocketing demand.
By the time USDA's program is up and running, Politico noted, "it will be too late for many produce growers who saw a huge drop in demand right at the peak of their season."
As New York magazine's Matt Stieb wrote Sunday, "Two of the enduring images of COVID-19's economic impact contradict each other: As miles-long lines back up at food banks throughout the country... ripe fruits and vegetables are being buried in their fields, with farmers losing out on half of their usual markets with restaurants, schools, and hotels closed."
"Though the apparent simplicity of solving one crisis with the other--providing the food insecure with unsellable product, rather than dumping milk into manure pits--is frustrated by practical issues, the Department of Agriculture only emerged with a solution on April 17," Steib wrote.
Amid federal inaction, Ryan Cranney, a farmer in the small town of Oakley, Idaho, decided to give away millions of potatoes that he is currently unable to sell.
"We saw people [come] from as far away as Las Vegas, which is an eight-hour drive from here," Cranney said in a recent interview. "If we as a country have more understanding of our food chain and where our food comes from and really what that means to farmers and the distribution system, maybe we'll be able to change things where we're not quite as vulnerable going forward."
Feeding America, the largest food bank operator in the U.S., warned in a report last week that the coronavirus crisis could lead to an all-time high in child hunger as millions of families struggle to cope with the devastating economic fallout.
The report found that "the number of food insecure children could escalate to 18 million because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The highest total ever reported by USDA in the 25 years that it has been measuring food insecurity was 17.2 million in 2009 at the height of the Great Recession."
Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, said in a statement that the findings should "mobilize everyone from our elected officials to the public at large to provide all the resources families need to get through this crisis."
"This pandemic has brought the plight of so many millions of our neighbors to the forefront," said Babineaux-Fontenot. "Every car waiting in a distribution line is a family seeking food and encouragement. We will not stop being there for them and ask that if you can support us in our mission, please give what you can."
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USDA's $19 Billion in COVID-19 Relief for Farmers and Food Banks Sparks Questions About Who Will Benefit
The new plan, says the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, "lacks critical details to confirm whether it will actually reach all who need it."
Apr 18, 2020
While some industry trade associations, hunger relief organizations, and federal lawmakers welcomed the Trump administration's new pledge to provide $19 billion in relief from the coronavirus pandemic to farmers and food banks nationwide, policy groups, and reporters highlighted that the announcement lacked critical details about who will benefit.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced the plan at a Friday night press briefing with President Donald Trump. The president said that "the program will include direct payments to farmers as well as mass purchases of dairy, meat, and agricultural produce to get that food to the people in need."
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), which joined with over 750 groups earlier this month in pressuring Perdue to directly help farmers who rely on local and regional markets, tweeted Friday that the plan was "progress" but still "lacks critical details to confirm whether it will actually reach all who need it."
Perdue, at the briefing, acknowledged the food supply chain problems caused by local and state coronavirus lockdowns, which have shuttered schools and businesses and imposed restrictions on restaurants. The closures have left some farmers and food producers with nowhere to send their products as unemployment soars and food banks face unprecedented demand.
"Having to dump milk or plow under vegetables ready to market is not only financially distressing," Perdue said, "but it's heartbreaking as well to those who produce them."
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statement described how the $19 billion will be spent:
- Direct Support to Farmers and Ranchers: The program will provide $16 billion in direct support based on actual losses for agricultural producers where prices and market supply chains have been impacted and will assist producers with additional adjustment and marketing costs resulting from lost demand and short-term oversupply for the 2020 marketing year caused by COVID-19.
- USDA Purchase and Distribution: USDA will partner with regional and local distributors, whose workforce has been significantly impacted by the closure of many restaurants, hotels, and other food service entities, to purchase $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy, and meat. We will begin with the procurement of an estimated $100 million per month in fresh fruits, and vegetables, $100 million per month in a variety of dairy products, and $100 million per month in meat products. The distributors and wholesalers will then provide a pre-approved box of fresh produce, dairy, and meat products to food banks, community, and faith based organizations, and other non-profits serving Americans in need.
The statement also noted that USDA "has up to an additional $873.3 million available in Section 32 funding to purchase a variety of agricultural products for distribution to food banks," and the recently enacted Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Families First Coronavirus Response (FFCRA) Act provide the agency with "at least $850 million for food bank administrative costs and USDA food purchases, of which a minimum of $600 million will be designated for food purchases."
Reporting on the boxes for hunger relief groups, Mother Jones correspondent Tom Philpott pointed out that "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."
Perdue didn't provide any clarity in a call with journalists, according to ABC News:
"If you don't mind the pun, this is an out of the box example of what we're trying to do. It is new and different. We've never done this before but in realigning the supply. Much of the conversation you've heard about milk dumping has been to do with the dual processing system we have in this country," he told reporters on a call Friday night.
He did not directly answer if this was a version of the harvest box program the department has proposed in previous budgets, to significant scrutiny from lawmakers, advocates, and food bank operators, and if that will slow down the process.
As for the aid to farmers and ranchers, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said in a statement Friday that the breakdown will be $9.6 billion for the livestock industry ($5.1 billion for cattle, $2.9 billion for dairy, and $1.6 billion for hogs); $3.9 billion for row crop producers; $2.1 billion for specialty crops producers; and $500 million for others crops.
Hoeven--who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee's Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee--said that producers will receive single payments capped at $125,000 per commodity and $250,000 per individual or entity to cover 85% of price loss from this year through April 15 and 30% of expected losses through the next two quarters.
Modern Farmer reported that during the call with journalists, Perdue didn't give a date for when producers will see payments but said that "I'm hoping we can get checks by the end of May." The secretary also confirmed there will an application process. As he put it: "I don't want to be facetious, but does anything happen in the federal government without paperwork?"
In a series of tweets Saturday morning, the advocacy group Food Policy Action noted that the USDA plan offers "nothing to protect farmworkers." The coronavirus outbreak has spurred fresh demands for greater efforts to improve conditions for these essential workers who often face barriers to fair wages, occupational safety, and healthcare even when there isn't a global health crisis.
Food Policy Action on Saturday also highlighted concerns that federal COVID-19 relief efforts could repeat "the mistakes of USDA's Market Facilitation Program (MFP), President Trump's bailout of farmers harmed by his trade war with China."
As Philpott explained at Mother Jones:
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% of recipients--many of them wealthy owners of large farms--received more than half of the allotted funds.
USDA's announcement Friday came after both Republicans and Democrats in Congress sent letters to Perdue calling on his agency to provide relief to their constituents, from dairy farmers in the Northeast to pork and beef producers in the Midwest. It also followed a call from the hunger relief group Feeding America and the industry trade group American Farm Bureau Federation for Perdue to establish "a voucher program that would deepen the relationships between farmers and food banks."
American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall--a newly announced member of the White House economic advisory board--expressed gratitude for the USDA's plan in a statement, saying that "this $16 billion in aid will help keep food on Americans' tables by providing a lifeline to farm families that were already hit by trade wars and severe weather."
"The plan to purchase $3 billion in meat, dairy products, fruits and vegetables will help to stabilize markets and keep farms afloat so they can go about the business of feeding America," Duvall added. "We also appreciate the additional funding from other sources to help deliver food from farms to food banks. We look forward to additional details about how the aid will be distributed."
ABC News reported that Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot--whose group has a network of 200 food banks nationwide--also applauded the plan.
"We are still examining the details, but this effort has the potential to be a significant food resource for people facing hunger," she said. "This program is designed to ensure nutritious food from growers and producers makes it on to the tables of our neighbors now when they need it most. We look forward to working closely with USDA on how to most efficiently operationalize the plan in the coming days."
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As Food Banks Face Shortages and Fresh Produce Rots, Pandemic Spurs Calls for Sustainable Supply Chain
"To truly be resilient, our system must shift to one that relies on small and medium producers and independent, responsible operations."
Apr 17, 2020
U.S. food pantries have faced unprecedented demand while billions of dollars in produce has gone to waste due to supply chain disruptions from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic--conditions that are renewing calls for reforms to make the nation's food systems more localized, resilient, and sustainable.
Coronavirus-related lockdowns and business closures this year have led to "staggering" levels of job loss, with the U.S. Department of Labor reporting Thursday that roughly 22 million people have applied for unemployment insurance since mid-March.
Those job and income losses have driven up demand for assistance from U.S. food banks and soup kitchens. In recent days, social media networks have been flooded with footage of long lines of cars full of people seeking free or affordable options:
"This year, the COVID-19 crisis is driving more of our neighbors into food insecurity and putting a strain on food banks to provide more meals," Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot said in a statement last week. "Never has the charitable food system faced such tremendous challenge, and we need all the resources we can get to help our neighbors during this terrible time."
Feeding America, the largest hunger relief organization in the United States, has a national network of 200 food banks. A recent survey of those food banks found that through April 1, 98% saw an increase in demand, 59% had less inventory, 67% needed more volunteers, 95% had higher operational expenses, and 37% faced "an immediate critical funding shortfall."
The Guardian reported Friday on the conditions at over 20 food banks and pantries across 15 states, some of which have established drive-thru distribution centers to comply with social distancing guidelines:
Queues up to six miles long have become common at these pop-up collection points as farwide as San Antonio, Las Vegas, and Cleveland, where thousands of recently furloughed and unemployed people wait hours for grocery boxes."
As demand escalates, the price of non-perishable staples such as peanut butter, eggs, canned vegetables, beans, pasta, rice, and jam is soaring, while supplies are running low with four- to eight-week delays and bottlenecks reported across the supply chain.
Eric Cooper, president of a food bank in San Antonio, told the Guardian that 25 semi-trucks of food were handed out in a single day last week, when about 10,000 people showed up at a drive-thru distribution center.
"The only thing we can do is ration and give families less," Cooper said of the rising demand for food aid. "I would challenge our federal government to put systems in place that allow for wasted food to go to families we are feeding. It's unconscionable."
In addition to increasing unemployment, pandemic-related local and state shutdowns of schools and "nonessential" businesses--which often restrict restaurants to providing only takeout and delivery services--have also led to major food supply chain disruptions.
Civil Eats explained Wednesday that "farmers, without their usual foodservice markets, are being forced to dump milk, eggs, and produce--even while there is an urgent, unprecedented need at food banks. And while there are efforts underway to address the gap between production and distribution, in between are many questions about how our food supply and distribution systems are set up--or not--to respond to disruption."
About $5 billion of fresh fruits and vegetables have already gone to waste, The Hill reported Friday, citing the industry trade group Produce Marketing Association. The group's CEO Cathy Burns said that "there's product literally wasting on the ground and then you have a whole population of people that are in dire need of nutritious foods."
"We have hundreds of thousands of farmers sitting on product," said Burns. "Because they don't have the financial means to ship and distribute it throughout the country, there is good, nutritious food going to waste while there are thousands of people going hungry."
"I think what it demonstrates is that the food supply chain that we have set up now, it's not set up to pivot ...quickly to address this kind of shock to the system," Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, told The Hill.
Feeding America and the industry trade group American Farm Bureau Federation last week urged (pdf) U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to establish "a voucher program that would deepen the relationships between farmers and food banks, allowing them to work directly with one another instead of relying upon third parties and what is sometimes a longer pathway to get food from farms to food bank shelves."
Burns told The Hill that "if we can get the funding to give farmers a fair price for their product, we can get it to food service distribution centers--they need the middle people in between--get it to their facilities, repack it in boxes, deliver it to a school or a food bank for distribution."
As Common Dreams reported Monday, both fresh produce and animal food products are being impacted by the pandemic. One of the country's largest pork processing facilities shut down after over 230 workers contracted COVID-19. Smithfield Foods president and CEO Kenneth Sullivan warned the closure of that facility and other U.S. protein plants will have "severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation's livestock farmers."
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) staff attorney Valerie Baron--who focuses on environmental and health protections, climate-healthy eating, and the impacts of industrial animal agriculture--addressed how the pandemic is endangering slaugtherhouse workers and supply chains in a blog post Thursday:
The strains on our supply chain spotlighted by the current crisis underscore that we need a fundamental overhaul of our food system to protect people who work in it, safeguard people who live near production sites, ensure sufficient safeguards to protect food safety, and ensure that resources are managed so that they remain available for future generations. Industry has long touted the consolidation and integration that helped amass corporate power as "efficient." The current crisis, however, has made clear what many working in the food supply chain have long known: these same "efficient processes" have left our whole food system--from farm to fork--vulnerable when single linchpins (such as slaughterhouses) are impacted. As one expert put it, "to truly be resilient, our system must shift to one that relies on small and medium producers and independent, responsible operations."
Baron urged policymakers to require stronger workplace standards, ensure essential food system workers have access to emergency care, and "provide support for industrial meat producers who want to switch to more resilient and sustainable production methods."
Renewed calls for promoting more resilient and sustainable food practices--sparked by the pandemic--aren't contained to the United States. Friends of the Earth Europe, in a series of tweets Friday, highlighted food-related lessons from the coronavirus crisis and benefits of localized food production:
"With business-as-usual agriculture we will not withstand the #climatecrisis and #biodiversitycrisis," Friends of the Earth Europe added. "Urgent action needs to be taken to change the food system!"
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Amplifying Food Supply Chain Concerns, 230+ Coronavirus Cases Close Down Top US Pork Producer
The indefinite shutdown comes as farmers nationwide are forced to dump fresh milk and mulch unharvested produce back into the ground.
Apr 13, 2020
One of the nation's largest pork processing facilities is shutting down indefinitely after over 230 employees tested positive for COVID-19, bolstering concerns about food supply chain problems that have left farmers, food banks, grocery stores, and agricultural and food service workers scrambling to keep crops harvested, shelves stocked, and people fed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sioux Falls, South Dakota facility accounts for up to 5% of U.S. pork production and employs about 3,700 people--who will receive at least two weeks pay during the shutdown--according to Smithfield Foods.
The company's president and CEO Kenneth Sullivan announced the closure in a statement Sunday:
The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply. It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running. These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation's livestock farmers. These farmers have nowhere to send their animals.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 cases are now ubiquitous across our country. The virus is afflicting communities everywhere. The agriculture and food sectors have not been immune. Numerous plants across the country have COVID-19 positive employees. We have continued to run our facilities for one reason: to sustain our nation's food supply during this pandemic. We believe it is our obligation to help feed the country, now more than ever. We have a stark choice as a nation: we are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19.
Smithfield, as Sullivan noted, is not alone in temporarily shuttering a meat processing facility in response to suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases among employees. As CNN reported, Tyson Foods suspended operations at a pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa and JBS USA plans to reopen a beef plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania on April 16 after a two-week shutdown.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted Monday that "animal agriculture and factory farms are utterly unsustainable as a means of feeding humans." The Intercept co-founder, who is vegan and has reported on animal rights and the agriculture industry, also highlighted growing alarm about antibiotic-resistant bacteria and zoonotic viruses like the novel coronavirus.
Bloomberg reported Sunday on how the meat industry-employee infections and plant closures across the United States have exposed both supply chain and worker safety concerns:
The shuttered plants and sick workers are adding to other disruptions caused by the virus that's making it harder for food to get from farm to table. Trucking bottlenecks and snarled port traffic have also contributed to why shoppers are seeing empty shelves.
The surge in cases has also raised concerns over worker safety. Deaths have been reported for employees at meat facilities owned by JBS SA and Tyson Foods Inc. Laborers have, in some cases, staged walk-outs to protest working conditions. In meat plants, stations on processing lines can be close together, creating challenges for social distancing. Workers also share break and locker rooms.
Advocacy groups have also raised alarm about food safety--especially given the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS), an updated U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) policy that privatizes hog-slaughter oversight--amid shifts in production demands related to restaurant, school, and business closures.
Local and state stay-at-home orders related to the pandemic have generally barred dine-in services but allowed restaurants to continue offering takeout and delivery services. However, some eateries have opted to close down entirely due to the crisis.
"The closing of restaurants, hotels, and schools has left some farmers with no buyers for more than half their crops," the New York Times reported Saturday. "And even as retailers see spikes in food sales to Americans who are now eating nearly every meal at home, the increases are not enough to absorb all of the perishable food that was planted weeks ago and intended for schools and businesses."
Outbreak-related disruptions to the U.S. food supply chain have forced farmers and food processors to dump fresh milk, smash unhatched eggs, and turn unharvested crops back into the ground--conditions that Paul Allen, who has had to destroy millions of pounds of beans and cabbage at his farms in South Florida and Georgia, called "heartbreaking."
According to the Times:
Many farmers say they have donated part of the surplus to food banks and Meals on Wheels programs, which have been overwhelmed with demand. But there is only so much perishable food that charities with limited numbers of refrigerators and volunteers can absorb.
And the costs of harvesting, processing, and then transporting produce and milk to food banks or other areas of need would put further financial strain on farms that have seen half their paying customers disappear.
Brian Greene, CEO of Houston Food Bank, told the Guardian last week that although "everything under the sun produce-wise is showing up" at his and other food banks--which are seeing increased demand as people across the country lose their jobs--much of that fresh food is expected to go to waste while both food banks and grocery stores struggle to stock shelf-stable goods.
"The reality is what makes the food chain work normally is there are just tens of thousands of arrangements that have been developed over time in order to match supply and demand. Then you just suddenly break all that and you're trying to, with voluntary relationships, piece something together in a very short timeframe," Greene said. "There's going to be a lot of failure."
In terms of supply, the Guardian noted that "efforts to keep farmworkers safe and socially distanced in the fields mean even slower harvesting," highlighting a March report on how "America's farmworkers have always done the essential work of feeding the nation for little reward and with few codified protections or benefits." These labor conditions have drawn greater scrutiny during the pandemic, as the same people who are working to harvest crops struggle to put food on their own tables.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and over 750 farm and food system groups from across the country sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last week urging the USDA to "work with urgency and creativity to redress harms, advance equity, and foster resilience in our farm and food system."
Rather than working to improve conditions for farmworkers, the Trump administration has ramped up attacks on this already marginalized group. As Common Dreams reported Saturday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Perdue are leading an effort to cut the wages of foreign guest workers on U.S. farms to provide financial relief to the nation's agricultural industry.
That effort came after President Donald Trump last month limited seasonal workers from Mexico during the outbreak, provoking warnings about labor and food shortages. Truthout reported Saturday that while the administration is also turning away asylum-seekers at the border, "officials say the administration may expand the recruitment of temporary agricultural workers" to keep the food supply moving.
"None of this is really about COVID-19, of course. The White House is just continuing and intensifying policies it has pushed for three years," Truthout continued. "The pandemic and Trump's response to it have gone a long way to expose the underlying injustices of U.S. society, including those in the immigration system. The crisis has created an opportunity, and a responsibility, to push harder than ever for fundamental immigration reform."
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As Trump Limits Guest Workers From Mexico Amid Coronavirus, Farmers Warn of Labor and Food Shortages
"There won't be anyone to harvest the crops... It will be devastating to growers and ultimately to the supply chain and consumers."
Mar 18, 2020
While images of barren grocery store shelves grab headlines and circulate on social media as people worldwide stock up on staples to get through the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, farmers in the United States are warning that the Trump administration's decision to limit seasonal workers from Mexico could soon lead to labor and food shortages.
"Under the new restrictions, American farmers will not have access to all of the skilled immigrant labor needed at a critical time in the planting season. This threatens our ability to put food on Americans' tables."
--Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation
The U.S. government announced Monday that "in response to the global pandemic COVID-19, and in line with the Mexican government's call to increase social distancing, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and all U.S. consulates in Mexico will suspend routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa services starting March 18, 2020, and until further notice."
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue reportedly told growers on a call Tuesday that consulates in Mexico will continue processing applications for returning guest workers under the H2A program--long criticized as exploitive--but will no longer process applications for new applicants, who represent up to 60% of the needed laborers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture told multiple news outlets that it is "directly engaged with the State Department and working diligently to ensure minimal disruption in H2A visa applications during these uncertain times."
According to Reuters, "Farmworker visas and other seasonal guest worker visas are still being processed in smaller countries including El Salvador and Guatemala."
Reuters reported Tuesday on U.S. fruit and vegetable growers "bracing for dramatic disruptions to their labor force" because of the guest worker changes:
While the harvesting of grains like wheat and corn is mostly automated in the United States, fruit and vegetable farmers rely on seasonal guest workers to pick their crops.
"When the process is stopped midstream, it likely means those crews won't be there exactly when they're needed, if they get there at all. That means lost crops. That means lost food," said Dave Puglia, president of the Western Growers Association, which represents fruit and vegetable growers in states including California and Arizona.
"Increasingly... we just don't have the labor force domestically. We're turning more and more to H2A workers because there's no other way to get our crops harvested and packed and off to consumers," he said.
Puglia warned foods that could soon be affected by the low guest worker numbers include broccoli, cauliflower, celery, leafy greens, melons, and radishes.
Robert Guenther, senior vice president for public policy at the United Fresh Produce Association, told Bloomberg that berries, cucumbers, and leafy greens will likely be impacted first but tree fruit like citrus, nectarines, peaches, and plums could be affected in May and June. He was frank in his assessment of the anticipated fallout of the new visa policy.
"There won't be anyone to harvest the crops," Guenther said. "It will be devastating to growers and ultimately to the supply chain and consumers. They won't have the food."
In a statement Tuesday, Zippy Duvall, president of the lobbying group American Farm Bureau Federation, emphasized that growers "remain committed to doing the work in the fields, orchards, and barns across the country to ensure Americans have access to healthy, affordable food," but also expressed concern about the labor limitations.
"The decision to halt visa application processing in Mexico will restrict the number of immigrant workers being allowed to enter the country," said Duvall. "Under the new restrictions, American farmers will not have access to all of the skilled immigrant labor needed at a critical time in the planting season. This threatens our ability to put food on Americans' tables."
"We fully support the administration's efforts to protect the public during this health crisis," Duvall added. "We are in constant contact with USDA, the State Department, and the White House. We have urged them to find safe, practical ways to admit farm laborers as emergency workers for visa purposes while still protecting public health."
Purdue said in a statement Tuesday that "if you have ideas or solutions for USDA, I urge you to reach out--we want to hear from the experts in the field."
"Food is essential all year round, but in the face of a pandemic it is critical the shelves remain stocked and supplies remain plentiful," Purdue acknowledged. "America's farmers and ranchers, and those on the front lines in the food service industry are doing their part."
In a video Tuesday, Purdue urged Americans to refrain from "hoarding" shelf-stable foods and claimed that U.S. food supply chains "remain strong."
The limits on guest workers from Mexico aren't the only immigration-related moves the federal government has made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Trump administration will soon announce plans to send back to Mexico all asylum-seekers and undocumented immigrants who attempt to cross the southern border between ports of entry.
Although "the ports of entry would remain open to American citizens, green card holders, and some foreigners with proper documentation," according to the Times, "some foreigners would be blocked, including Europeans currently subject to earlier travel restrictions enacted by the administration. The entryways will also be open to commercial traffic."
Amnesty International USA advocacy director for the Americas Charanya Krishnaswami charged Wednesday that "the Trump administration's ban on asylum-seekers coming from Mexico has nothing to do with making Americans safer from the coronavirus pandemic." She accused the president of "engaging in fear-mongering to justify racist and discriminatory policies whose only purpose is to demonize people seeking safety."
"The Trump administration has already sent tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to harm's way in Mexico, forcing them to survive in dangerous and precarious conditions and exposing them to appalling risks of kidnapping, torture, and other abuses," Krishnaswami added. "Instead of doubling down on these failed tactics, the Trump administration should reverse these cruel and punitive policies and allow people to seek safety following the process required by U.S. and international law."
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