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.
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. Nonetheless, the coronavirus catastrophe has laid bare just how tied up in red tape the USDA’s commodity buying system can be. The process typically takes months from start to finish.
Shutting down restaurants, cruise ships, hotels and schools may have been crucial for stopping the spread of the virus, but it quickly became a train wreck for the food system. The food-service sector represents about half of the food dollars spent and a quarter of food consumed in the country. Some 40 percent of the country’s fresh produce goes into food service, as consumers increasingly prefer to eat vegetables if someone else is preparing them.
Paul Allen, co-owner of RC Hatton Farms, is currently disking hundreds of acres of cabbage — a process that grinds crops into the soil “We begged them not to put a cap on it,” Allen said. Farmers who grow fruits and vegetables have extremely high costs per acre and often plant at such a large scale that the payments won’t even begin to cover their losses. It typically costs less than $700 per acre to grow commodity soybeans. It costs more than $4,000 per acre to grow cabbage. “What is fair is not always equal,” he said.
Toby Basore, a grower based in Western Palm Beach County, Fla., estimates his company disced somewhere between 8 and 10 million pounds of lettuce into the ground in recent weeks due to lack of demand. Top Left: Cabbage split in half after being disced by a tractor April 23 near Belle Glade, Fla. Top Right: A tractor discs cabbage into the ground shown April 23 near Belle Glade, Fla. Bottom: Paul Allen, co-owner of RC Hatton Farms, documents a field of over mature cabbage tilled April 23 near Belle Glade, Fla. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICOUSDA’s new aid package is aimed at cushioning the blow.
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