March 28, 2024

Trump delivers for farmers and food banks

WASHINGTON — Recognizing American farmers and the economic damage they are suffering as a result of coronavirus supply disruptions, President Donald Trump recently rolled out the details of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

As the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the details, including a May 26 start of sign-up, of the $19 billion program, including $16 billion in direct payments to grain and livestock farmers, Trump spoke in a press conference where he was joined by farmers, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Ivanka Trump.

“We are announcing $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers, so $16 billion going directly to the farmers and ranchers. It’s authorized by the CARES Act and the Commodity Credit Corporation charter act. We fought hard for this,” Trump said.

Trump took a victory lap of congratulations for the payments that have been made to the nation’s farmers under the Market Facilitation Program and now the CFAP.

“No other president has done this. You can go back to Abraham Lincoln. There’s no president that’s treated the farmers like Trump. I hear we’re doing well with the farmers, but I can’t imagine, I want to find out who wouldn’t be, who wouldn’t be with Trump, right? It’s an honor to do it. These are great, great people,” the president said.

He was joined by three farmers from Virginia, including produce farmers, who are participating in the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program, part of the CFAP.

Under that portion of the program, the government is purchasing up to $3 billion in fresh produce, meat and dairy products from national, regional and local suppliers and distributors. Those products will be packaged in family-sized boxes and distributed to food banks.

“This program is going to help tremendously with the movement of potatoes this summer. We have six distributors who are our current customers who are doing the food box program, so our potatoes will be in some of those food boxes,” said David Hickman, a fifth-generation farmer who runs Dublin Farms in Horntown, Virginia.

Robert Mills Jr. raises tobacco, beef cattle, poultry, hay, small grains and industrial hemp for CBD products on his Briar View Farms in Calland, Virginia.

“It’s administrations like President Trump’s administration and the forethought he’s had with the programs that he’s put in place and the one that we’re talking about today. It’s not a rescue program. It’s going to help these farm families make good, wise financial decision in the months and weeks and years ahead. It’s also there to let them know this country is supporting them because this country relies on what these farmers and ranchers do every day,” Mills said.

Trump recognized farming as not just a job, but a lifestyle.

“What is it with farmers? They don’t want to do anything else. They have some bad years, but we’ve helped them have very good years. But they have some bad years, but they wouldn’t trade it for anything, would they?” said the president, as the Virginia farmers spoke and talked with him about their individual farms.

Ivanka Trump worked with Perdue on the food box program, and she joined the president and the farmers to comment on the aid package.

“You can hear today and you can hear through the course of the campaign and the last three years the special place all of you have in the heart of this president,” she told the farmers.

The president’s daughter and Perdue unveiled the food boxes a week prior to the May 19 press conference.

“We hope these boxes will play a big role in feeding those who need it across the country,” she said.

Marty Smith, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and a beef producer from Florida, emphasized the importance of family operations.

“I want to thank you and your family. With us, it’s all about our families and our family operation. Your family is just as dedicated to this. Ivanka, we thank you for the support you’ve shown to us. It’s so meaningful and together, we get through this and we do defeat this and we keep the highest quality, safest, most sustainable protein sources on the plate of Americans all through this,” Smith said.