Policy Updates and Issue News April 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has now turned into two worldwide crises, medical and economic. Just a couple months ago, most of us could not have imagined a virus so infectious that it could spread around the world in a few months killing people in war time numbers. Neither could we have we expected worldwide economies to tank so far so fast with jobless rates unheard of since the Great Depression. Forecasters now predict the debt held by the American public will exceed the size of the economy by the end of fiscal year 2020 and eclipse the prior record set after World War II by 2023.

Our more isolated rural communities have been spared high infection and death rates except in localities where food processing workers traditionally work in large numbers in close proximity. Plants have shuttered to disinfect and install worker protective barriers. Supplies of beef, pork and poultry are backed up at the farm as more and more processing plants close periodically. Milk has been dumped and vegetables plowed under as restaurant demand dried up and processing facilities and distribution channels struggled to change their product mix to accommodate retail trade and government purchases specifications. Export markets are running around thirty percent of normal volume. Overall, farm gate prices have fallen 10 to 40 percent depending upon the commodity.

The need to provide telemedicine and distance learning during the pandemic is bringing fresh attention and a reality focus to the rural digital divide. More and more of the general public and public policy officials are aware that while connectivity to high speed technologies is absolutely necessary going forward, much of rural America does not have the connectivity to access these tools. The National Grange is speaking out that while we’re extremely grateful for congressional and Administration support and funding to reach the “last mile” in rural America with 5G connectivity within five years, we don’t have that long given present pandemic developments. A new focus on near-term connectivity using a mix of available technologies must become a public policy priority the Grange will be pushing for.

Congress has passed four major financial aid packages that include direct payments to individuals, paycheck protection for idled workers, protective equipment for medical personnel and first responders, loans and grants for businesses, hospitals and schools, medicine and vaccine research, government commodity purchases, aid to farmers and ranchers, and much more. For agriculture producers, the aid packages provide support for:

• Commodity purchases – USDA has committed to spending $100 million per month to buy dairy products, fresh produce, pork and chicken for government feeding programs and food banks.
• Row crops – $3.9 billion in direct payments are earmarked for row crops where markets have dropped at least five percent since January. These are mainly corn, soybeans and cotton.
• Livestock – $9.6 billion will go directly to cattle, dairy and hog producers where prices have fallen 25-35 percent.
• Specialty crops – $2.1 billion goes to fruit and vegetable growers and grower-shippers.

A fifth relief package is expected to be seriously considered and hotly contested when lawmakers return to Washington (Senate May 4, House unknown). Political fights are already developing around these five wish-list project buckets:

• Aid for state and local governments
• Additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small business
• Funding for states to implement voting by mail
• Boost in food assistance
• New infrastructure projects
• And more

Jump in Direct Sales

Farms that sell direct to consumers have seen their demand spike and many are booking ahead as well as creating waiting lists. Those with pick-your-own programs have scrambled to convert to drive-through pick-up marketing.

Food Banks Appeal for More Food

Financial fallout from the pandemic is triggering a hunger crisis from Maine to California. People furloughed and unemployed are in car queues before daylight waiting for food banks to open. Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, expects to see a 50-60 percent increase in the number of people who do not have enough to eat. Food banks nationwide are squeezed between short supplies and surging demand from needy families, single parents, the elderly and the disabled.

Farm to Food Banks

The National Grange joined Feeding America and the American Farm Bureau to urge the Secretary of Agriculture to create a vouchers program with enough regulatory flexibility that would allow farmers to ship commodities directly to food banks instead of relying on third party transactions that delay the process. This farmer-food bank voucher idea will help farmers cover their cost of harvesting, packing, storing and transporting surplus farm fresh food to food banks.

USDA Increases SNAP Benefits

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue announced emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit increases for eligible households across all 50 states and 3 territories. This emergency assistance represents a 40 percent increase in overall SNAP benefits.

Food Chain Workers are Essential

Early in the pandemic , the Grange worked with producer groups, suppliers, processors, truckers, service unions and retailers to convince the Administration to designate food supply chain as an essential work force that need the freedom to continually perform their jobs. This designation allowed workers from farm to consumer to perform their jobs in lock-down designations. While the work of health professionals, first responders and public safety officials is certainly heroic, we need to give a shout-out to food industry workers who put themselves on the line for our food security. Those working on a farm or ranch, in a processing plant, trucking food to distribution centers or stores, stocking shelves and selling food are indeed essential and the unsung heroes of COVID-19 fight.

Meat Processing Plants Become Food Chain’s Weakest Link

Today’s meat processing plants are large, modern, efficient and employ huge numbers of people working in close proximity. The ripple effects of COVID-19 are now being felt across the entire meat processing landscape. When plant workers and federal inspectors become infected, plants close to test workers, disinfect premises and install protective barriers. Closing down one plant, even for a few weeks, backs up production across the country, crashes prices paid to farmers and leads to huge surpluses at the farm and severe meat shortages for the consumer. By late April, more than a dozen beef, pork and chicken plants have closed or are running at greatly reduced speeds because of the pandemic.

On April 28, the President signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to protect the country’s food supply. The order will protect processors from liability concerns and require them to remain open and to reopen closed plants as soon as it is safe to do so. Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol for worker safety is now in place at processing plants. Processors will also have to provide written documentation of mitigation plans for review by a USDA-led team that includes representatives of the Labor department and CDC.

Keep the Trucks Rolling

The National Grange joined growers, producers and truckers to request the Department of Transportation to waive hour of service rules to allow truckers longer hours to keep food supply channels open and running from farm to consumer. DOT granted the request and has since extended the waiver to May 15.

Ag Labor Gets Through

The Trump Administration responded favorably to requests from ag groups including the Grange to give ag workers special consideration during the lock-down. H-2A workers previously employed in the U.S. can re-enter without new immigration interviews and H-2A workers already in the country can remain past their deadline and may change employers.

Canada’s Health Care Suffering

For our friends to the north, 50 years of government managed health care is failing under the strain of COVID-19. In normal times, Canadians wait four hours in emergency rooms, four weeks for a MRI and 20 weeks from referral to treatment by a specialist. Now, in the middle of this pandemic, the Canadian system is buckling. Beds in intensive units are scarce. Reuters news service reports patients are in broom closets, conference rooms and auditoriums all across the country. Emergency deregulations are beginning to spread across health care. As an example, physicians are finally getting limited permission to operate telehealth services.

Keep Seniors Healthy

The National Grange joined patient advocacy groups to support the Protecting Seniors Through Immunization Act (H.R.5076 and S.1872). The bills would require out-of-pocket payments for vaccines under Medicare Part D to be the same as vaccines under Medicare Part B thus saving seniors money on future vaccinations.

Pandemic Tough on Rural Hospitals

Rural hospitals were already struggling to stay open before the pandemic struck. COVID-19 restrictions on elective surgery, routine hospitalization needs and high cost of personal protective equipment may escalate closures. Hopefully funds for hospitals tucked into Congress’ fourth COVID relief package will actually reach rural hospitals.

Thank You

A great big thank you to our telecommunications partners. You have stepped up to help mitigate our sudden challenge to get connected or stay connected. The creation of Wi-Fi hotspots in rural communities means our school and home-bound college students can do homework and complete projects. With routine medical service suspended at hospitals and doctors’ offices, check-in via telemedicine is now possible. We also appreciate your forbearance of late payments, additional data overage, free telehealth visits and more. There’s news of aggies helping too. We’re hearing about agribusinesses and ag co-ops standing up Wi-Fi hot spots at their satellite business facilities in rural and small town areas. Thanks Aggies!

Keep Satellite TV

The National Grange issued a statement urging Congress to extend the Copyright Act’s distance network signal license which expires May 31. In rural areas, many households still depend on satellite TV to connect with major broadcast networks for news, information and to stay safe as COVID-19 spreads.

Agencies Should Coordinate Lifeline

On April 27, 38 Senators and 102 House Members wrote FCC Chairman Pai to urge cooperation between the Federal Communications Commission, USDA and Health and Human Services to promote the subsidized Lifeline program which gives low-income, disabled, shut-in and veteran citizens access to voice and broadband services. On April 29, the FCC opened Lifeline enrollment through June 30 to include those who are newly unemployed as a result of the pandemic.