“Just four companies now supply more than half of the fresh-cut salad in the country, and that’s why one problem like the cyclospora outbreak can quickly spread across so many states and impact so many people,” said Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action.
Farm Action Comments on COVID Stimulus Grant Distribution
Today, Family Farm Action Alliance submitted a public comment to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), recommending how COVID stimulus grants should be developed, distributed, and implemented for small businesses throughout the food system. Funding for the grants was authorized in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The comment also offered recommendations for COVID relief in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
The comment addressed key issues identified by the AMS that will impact the distribution of grant money including: defining small-mid sized businesses in farming and food processing and suggesting how these businesses could confirm their size. Barriers to applying for funding and specific needs farming and food processing businesses might have because of COVID were also addressed in the comment.
Family Farm Action Alliance’s comment was centered around the principles of anti-monopoly reform, supporting regenerative agriculture, building resilient local and regional food systems, and market innovation. It is crucial that this stimulus money make it into the pockets of the small farmers, ranchers, food processors and distributors who need it the most. Family Farm Action Alliance is hopeful that this comment will contribute to a just an equitable distribution of COVID relief funding.
Media Contact: Angela Huffman, [email protected]
RECENT NEWS
WZMQ 19 | Corporate farming may play a role in more frequent foodborne illness outbreaks
“Just four companies now supply more than half of the fresh-cut salad in the country, and that’s why one problem like the cyclospora outbreak can quickly spread across so many states and impact so many people,” said Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action.
The Beef Lobby Doesn’t Want You to Know Where Your Beef Comes From
Congress has a chance to restore mandatory country-of-origin labeling, but one of Washington’s most powerful beef lobbying groups is fighting to keep consumers in the dark.
If It Isn’t Taylor Farms, Then Who?
The Cyclospora investigation shows how decades of corporate consolidation have concentrated America’s produce supply chain, leaving a handful of companies with an outsized role in feeding the country.