WASHINGTON, DC – Reps. Annie Kuster (NH-02), Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11), Cheri Bustos (IL-17), and Chellie Pingree (ME-01) led a group of 19 House Democrats in a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue sounding the alarm on the USDA’s failure to help small farms, farmers of color, beginning, minority and veteran farmers, and others through its implementation of direct payments to farmers and ranchers under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and Farmers to Families Food Box Program.

“It has become abundantly clear that direct payments to producers have largely overlooked small farms, and those that are owned by beginning, veteran, minority, and socially disadvantaged farmers. The need amongst these stakeholders is significant,” the lawmakers wrote. “As you know, farmers of color have long faced documented discrimination from USDA programs, and little has changed to slow the decline of the number of black farmers and their acreage from where they were a century ago.”

In addition to concerns about the impact of the USDA’s implementation of the programs on critical minority-owned and small farms, the lawmakers also questioned the criteria used to award large contracts under the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. They called into question the fact that producers with strong connections to food supply chains in their region were passed over for companies that lacked experience working with food banks or in wholesale food distribution.

The group also noted that to date, the Farmers to Families Food Box Program has failed to meet its goal of delivering 40 million boxes by the end of June and has not provided information on which non-profits have received boxes in each state.

Newsletter