pandemic
Food insecurity rises among disabled people, but solutions exist
Even before Covid-19 hit, disabled people were at greater risk of food insecurity because of higher rates of unemployment, lower earnings, and transportation and accessibility barriers. The pandemic only exacerbated these disparities. In 2020, disabled adults were twice as likely to be food insecure as adults without disabilities.
‘Spot market’ program aims pandemic aid at hog farmers
The government will send up to $50 million to hog farmers who were forced to sell hogs at pandemic-depressed prices on the spot market during the summer of 2020, said the Agriculture Department on Monday. The announcement came a month after the USDA said it was disbursing $270 million to contract growers of hogs and poultry through its Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative.
Demand for food aid stays high in second year of pandemic
The pandemic sent millions of Americans to food banks for help last year and the crush continues this year, said a food bank leader at a House hearing on USDA food donation programs on Wednesday. Feeding America, the largest food bank network in the nation, asked for a 45 percent funding increase for The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which buys U.S.-grown food and gives it to food banks to alleviate hunger.
Covid-19 is worst in persistently poor rural counties
Throughout the pandemic, the highest Covid-19 case rates and the lowest vaccination rates in the country have been found in persistently poor rural counties, the USDA said Wednesday in its annual Rural America at a Glance report. Those counties have also had low unemployment rates, suggesting residents continued to work despite the risk of infection by the coronavirus, said the report.
Leaders of all House committees call for hunger conference
In a letter to President Biden, the leaders of every House committee said on Wednesday that the pandemic had revealed the extent of hunger in America. "We call on you to convene a national conference on food, nutrition, hunger, and health ... to design a roadmap to end hunger in America by 2030," they wrote.
U.S. hunger rate is lowest since start of pandemic
High prices, strong demand mean back-to-back records for U.S. ag exports
Propelled by the global economic recovery from the pandemic, U.S. farm exports will set back-to-back sales records this fiscal year and in the new year beginning on Oct. 1, the government forecast on Thursday. China would account for $1 of every $5 in exports during the two-year span, with annual purchases running more than $10 billion above its previous record, set in 2014.
Farmers’ markets survived 2020, but the Delta variant poses new challenges
Many vendors who sell at farmers' markets saw a huge boost in sales last year, even as markets themselves struggled with the higher overhead costs of pandemic safety measures. This season, the growing threat of the Delta variant looms over a market experience that was nearly back to normal, say market managers and advocates.
Gala reigns, Honeycrisp climbs on U.S. apple hit list
Gala, a relative newcomer, holds the No. 1 spot in U.S. apple production for the third year in a row, while Honeycrisp, described by one reviewer as "juicy and instantly refreshing," moved up a notch to No. 3, said the U.S. Apple Association on Thursday.
Big coronavirus increases in SNAP and farm spending
The food stamp program will cost $145 billion this year, more than double its pre-pandemic total, due to expansion to combat the pandemic, estimated the CBO in updating its budget outlook. Mandatory agricultural spending was forecast at $48 billion this year, an increase of $17 billion from 2020.
Essential work, low wages on the farm
Farmworkers earned less than 60 percent of what comparable workers did off the farm last year, says an Economic Policy Institute blog. The wage gap in 2020 was virtually unchanged from 2019.
Pandemic brings highest global hunger rate in 12 years
First decline in global food prices in a year
Sharply lower prices for vegetable oils, down nearly 10 percent in a month, contributed to the first decline in the Food Price Index since last May, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Thursday. The index fell by 2.5 percent in June, although it was still about one-third higher than a year ago.
After pandemic pain, school meal programs brace for next year
School districts across the country pared their menus, reduced staffing, and canceled equipment purchases because of the pandemic, but nearly half of them still lost money in the cafeteria during the past school year, said a survey released on Thursday by the School Nutrition Association. More than eight of every 10 food directors said they were concerned about financial losses and staff shortages in the upcoming school year.
Trump administration tried to influence state responses to meatpacking plant outbreaks, documents reveal
Top staff at the Department of Agriculture, including former agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue, and at the Vice President’s office sought to influence how states responded to early outbreaks of Covid-19 in meatpacking plants last spring, a trove of documents reveals.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Smithfield exaggerated meat-supply risk of pandemic, says lawsuit
Report: Pandemic waivers helped boost WIC enrollment
Pandemic-era tweaks to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children helped boost participation in the program, commonly known as WIC, after years of declining enrollment, according to a report released yesterday by the Food Research & Action Center.
After months of waiting, labor advocates disappointed new OSHA rule excludes food system workers
After months of delay, the Biden administration on Thursday released a rule dictating how employers in the healthcare sector should protect workers from the spread of Covid-19. The exclusion of meatpacking, food processing, farm, and grocery retail workers from the new workplace standards sparked an outcry from worker advocacy groups and unions.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Louisiana finds possible human case of bird flu
A resident of southwestern Louisiana was hospitalized with what appeared to be the state's first case of bird flu in a person, said state health officials. Sixty people in seven states have contracted mild cases of the viral disease this year, according to the CDC.