Highlighting COVID-19 Impacts

Former Ag Secretary Champions SNAP Boost, Food Banks and Resiliency Shift

Jerry Hagstrom
By  Jerry Hagstrom , DTN Political Correspondent
Former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talked about dealing with food and agriculture during the COVID-19 pandemic during a webinar sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources on Friday, June 19. (Screenshot from webinar)

WASHINGTON (DTN) -- The top priority for Congress in dealing with food and agriculture in the time of COVID-19 should be to increase the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit levels, former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Friday during a webinar sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. But Vilsack also raised a range of other potential changes to the U.S. food and agriculture system.

Asked for his priority in the next coronavirus aid package, Vilsack, a Democrat who served in the Obama administration and also served as governor of Iowa, said, "The priority is to increase the SNAP benefit. We are going to have high unemployment for a long time, 9% to 10% unemployment by the end of the year."

When the virus stay-at-home restrictions began, retail sales went up, Vilsack said, but for struggling families, "Unfortunately there has not been an increase by the federal government to increase the ability of those families to buy food. We are dealing with a benefit that is inadequate to meet the challenge. Hopefully, Congress will look at it."

Former California Secretary of Food and Agriculture A.G. Kawamura, a produce farmer from Orange County who also participated in the webinar, said Congress should consider increasing the "double bucks" program that allows SNAP beneficiaries to increase purchases of fruits and vegetables, and should also not ignore the importance of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

The House HEROES Act includes a 15% increase in SNAP benefits. Nearly 2,500 groups wrote Senate leaders last week to pass it.

Vilsack also said Congress should consider grants to food banks for storage and refrigeration.

"We haven't figured out a system for a quick pivot for food to be donated," he said, speaking of the situation in which restaurants closed and farmers and distributors lost that market.

"One of the lessons is to have a quicker pivot," Vilsack said. "How do we create a circumstance so that food banks can receive items that need to be refrigerated and stored properly?"

Vilsack said the recently created Farmers to Families Food Box Program that distributes boxes of fruit, vegetables, precooked pork and poultry and dairy products has had "significant successes, but also some deep concerns" because "grants were given to entities that had no prior experience."

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Through the box program, the Navajo Nation is getting higher-quality foods than in previous distribution programs, Kawamura said. Navajo leaders have said "they have never seen such beautiful food" because, in the past, they received food that hadn't sold, Kawamura added.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which represents smaller farm operations, said last week that not enough contracts under the food box program are going to smaller farmers and distributors. Out of $1.2 billion in contracts, only about 7%, or $84 million, went to groups that appear to be local or regional food-system groups, NSAC stated.

Vilsack also criticized the meat processing industry for not taking action to protect its workers when the coronavirus first appeared. "There were a series of steps the industry could have taken but didn't take," he said, such as slowing down processing lines and keeping workers farther apart.

Noting that the shutdown of two or three hog production facilities disrupted the market and the facilities are designed for one size of hog, Vilsack said, "It underscores the importance of this industry rethinking the process," including more automation.

The government and food industry officials have always been proud of the efficiency in the U.S. food system, but Vilsack asked, "Has the time come to consider resiliency in the same way we consider efficiency? Is there a need to consider the possibility of having smaller facilities rather than one larger facility so there is resilience? Is the government thinking about providing assistance to create more, smaller facilities that could take on processing in a future crisis?"

Vilsack also talked about the need to consider different marketing and sales strategies in response to COVID-19. "The system is designed to reward size and efficiency. That is fine. We the consumer benefit from that. But farmers have to have off-farm income," he said. If there are more local and regional food systems so that farmers could negotiate with alternative markets such as farmers markets and schools, "We may have a more resilient system," he added.

Kawamura, who served in the Republican administration of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said he does not think resiliency needs to sacrifice efficiency because small operations do not have to put big facilities out of business.

If food becomes more expensive, Vilsack asked, could the affordability of food be handled through a higher SNAP benefit or higher minimum wage? The coronavirus pandemic has underscored the effect on minorities, people of color and people who have low incomes, he noted.

"This is an opportunity for us to learn about the access to food and health, ensure food access is expanded" and "make sure our systems address these inequities," he said.

"My heart goes out to [Agriculture Secretary] Sonny Perdue" who has had to cope with the coronavirus pandemic while USDA staff have been working from home, Vilsack said. But Vilsack now heads the U.S. Dairy Export Council, and he noted that the food box program has also affected markets.

"The combination of government buying and food service coming back on line created a shortage of cheese," Vilsack said. "That is good for farmers but not for consumers or for exports."

U.S. dairy products are "now priced above the world market," Vilsack said. "Cheese went from very low to very high in a matter of weeks. That creates volatility in the market. There is this issue of timing and how we organize our help so it does not create problems in the market."

Class III futures milk prices have moved to $21 per cwt on the June contract and even higher on the July contract on the CME, recovering from prices that were as low as $12 per cwt at the end of April.

The National Milk Producers Federation said Monday in a podcast that dairy prices have rebounded dramatically because farmers quickly adjusted their milk production and consumers boosted retail demand as government purchases kicked in to help offset lost food-service sales

"That has resulted in a very, very rapid change in the market price outlook," said Peter Vitaliano, chief economist for the National Milk Producers Federation, said in the podcast. "The markets currently are looking like there's going to be a very strong rebound, and prices will get to a more normal level in the second half of this year."

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried, an elected Democrat, was also scheduled to participate in the webinar but canceled her appearance.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources: Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Food and Agricultural System (video): https://vimeo.com/…

National Milk Producers Federation podcast: https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/…

Jerry Hagstrom can be reached at jhagstrom@nationaljournal.com

Follow him on Twitter @hagstromreport

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Jerry Hagstrom