Parts of Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee are experiencing devastating crop and farm damage from Hurricane Helene, which touched land on Florida’s panhandle Thursday.
“Every commodity in the state has been damaged by the storm,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a news conference Saturday. Kemp estimated the cost of damages from Helene will exceed those associated with Hurricane Michael in 2018.
He added that at least 107 poultry facilities were damaged or destroyed by the storm.
In North Carolina, Linda Pryor’s apple orchard south of Asheville flooded, leaving her close-to-harvest fruit floating in the floodwaters.
At least 120 people have died due to the hurricane, and more than 2 million homes and businesses are without power.
USDA pumping money into local food purchasing
Deputy Ag Secretary Xochitl Torres Small is in the swing state of Michigan today to announce $1.2 billion in new funding for purchasing locally and regionally produced foods for assistance programs.
The money will pay for procuring local foods for schools, child-care facilities, food banks, and other institutions. Some $500 million is earmarked for schools, while $200 million will go to child care facilities. The remaining $500 million will be used to purchase local foods for emergency programs.
In addition to that $1.2 billion for local foods, USDA is providing another $500 million will go for purchasing domestic commodities for emergency food providers. The funding comes from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation spending authority.
“By delivering food from domestic producers to schools, child care facilities and emergency feeding organizations, we’re securing local and regional markets for those farmers and ensuring our students, young children and neighbors in need are getting nutritious, reliable meals,” says Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Congress ups pressure on Boar’s Head
Several lawmakers, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are pressing both Boar’s Head executives and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service for answers on what led to a deadly listeria outbreak. DeLauro is the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
Twenty-five lawmakers sent a letter to FSIS with concerns about its level of oversight and enforcement at Boar’s Head’s Jarratt, Virginia, plant, which has been linked with the listeria outbreak. In addition, according to USDA records, it has a history of food safety violations. Boar’s Head indefinitely closed the facility in September.
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Despite inspectors documenting instances of noncompliance like mold, insects and puddles of blood on the floor, the lawmakers are concerned no enforcement actions were taken. The letter includes several questions about the details of inspection visits and listeria testing.
In another letter sent directly to executives of Boar’s Head, 22 lawmakers also included questions about testing procedures and why staff did not address food safety concerns and instances of noncompliance sooner.
“As a company that operates within the United States and sells to American consumers, you have an obligation to protect public health and prepare and sell food that meets safety standards,” lawmakers wrote to Boar’s Head. “With the science we have available, there is no excuse for the tragic loss of life that has occurred as a result of this outbreak.”
Take note: USDA has previously noted that it is investigating the build-up to the outbreak, its state inspection models and other Boar’s Head facilities. However, in a recent letter denying the release of requested records, FSIS indicated the other facilities are part of a law enforcement investigation.
In response to an Agri-Pulse Freedom of Information Act request, FSIS said it identified 81 pages of records that detail inspection reports and instances of noncompliance at Boar’s Head’s four other processing plants between Jan. 1, 2022, and Sept. 16, 2024. FSIS did not release these records, however, citing exemptions that apply to records compiled for “law enforcement purposes.”
USTR, USDA estimate new global market access for ag is worth $26.7 billion
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and USDA released a report Monday that serves as a response to critics of the administration’s ag trade policy. The report says the Biden administration has increased ag market access by $26.7 billion, even without any large-scale free-trade agreements.
The gains have come in the form of negotiated agreements easing regulatory barriers or reducing or eliminating tariffs to ease U.S. access to overseas markets – beef in Japan, chicken leg quarters in Angola and cherries in Australia, for example.
Chief Agricultural Trade Negotiator Doug McKalip told Agri-Pulse that “the long list of countries” in a fact sheet on administration “achievements” will become longer soon.
“There's certainly a lot to come, and certainly more in the weeks and months ahead,” McKalip promised.
Final word: “Sometimes, folks in D.C. expect to see a long acronym, a fancy title” for trade deals, but farmers and ranchers “don't care if there's not a really super-long acronym, or if it takes five years and a bunch of negotiating rounds. They just want to see a change of market access, and that's certainly what we're showing here.” – Doug McKalip, chief U.S. agricultural trade negotiator, discussing the above-mentioned report.
