Feinstein, Padilla to Ag Secretary Vilsack: Help California Farmers Harmed by Shipping Delays

Washington-Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (both D-Calif.) today called on Secretary Tom Vilsack to prioritize U.S. Department of Agriculture grants to benefit California farmers that are being harmed by ongoing shipping delays.

Earlier this month, Secretary Vilsack announced significant USDA funding to strengthen our food supply chain, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and shipping bottlenecks.

"USDA investments in agricultural producers who have experienced substantial losses due to shipping delays would help deliver products to market at home and abroad, thereby providing consumers with healthier food options, stimulating the economies of rural communities, and ensuring our nation does its part to support global food security," the senators wrote. "We also encourage you to ensure that grantees retain their workforce and benefits provided to them, as these workers are the backbone of the agriculture industry."

Full text of the letter is available here and follows:

June 28, 2022

The Honorable Thomas J. Vilsack
Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

As you work to implement $1.5 billion in food distribution and market access programs, we urge you to prioritize investments in agricultural producers who have experienced substantial losses due to shipping delays. Specifically, we urge you to support commodity purchases for specialty crops, quality loss assistance, and cold storage at food banks and distribution hubs. These investments would make a real difference in mitigating agricultural producers' financial losses and preventing similar disasters in the future.

As you know, our nation's food distribution system has been strained since the onset of the pandemic. For example, the cost to ship containers has increased dramatically, in some cases by nearly 1,000 percent. These challenges have had disastrous consequences for many producers, especially those growing perishable crops. The California agricultural industry lost $2.1 billion in exports between May and September 2021 alone, and experimental solutions like "pop-up" terminals have not yet alleviated the congestion. As a result, billions of pounds of healthy food are now sitting in storage and rapidly losing commercial and nutritional value. As farmers prepare for the next planting season, these financial losses on top of increased input costs will further exacerbate difficulties for producers.

USDA investments in agricultural producers who have experienced substantial losses due to shipping delays would help deliver products to market at home and abroad, thereby providing consumers with healthier food options, stimulating the economies of rural communities, and ensuring our nation does its part to support global food security. We also encourage you to ensure that grantees retain their workforce and benefits provided to them, as these workers are the backbone of the agriculture industry. Thank you for your consideration of our request and for your focus on improving our domestic food supply and nutrition assistance programs.

Sincerely,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

Alex Padilla
United States Senator

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