As Farmers Call for More Virus Aid, Ag Secretary Perdue Says Relief Is Waiting
While the USDA says it will keep sending direct aid to keep farmers afloat amid the pandemic, some argue the payment system so far has been unfair, sending too much to big farms, writes Raquel Martin at WWLP. “There is a pattern here,” National Farmers Union President Rob Larew said.
He said just like with relief issued when President Donald Trump’s trade war hit the agriculture industry hard, coronavirus relief aid is going to only the top 1% of farms, some of which are foreign-owed.
He and other agriculture groups say the USDA must level the playing field, giving small farms an equal shot at relief. “If we don’t, the impact is going to be even more bankruptcies and farms going out of business,” Larew said.
More than a dozen Democrats joined the call, arguing that in addition to small farms, minority-, veteran- and women-owned operations aren’t getting their fair share. “I think the farmers have been ignored,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said. “Now, the big farms, corporate farms, are doing well. … The small farms are those that are struggling right now.”
But Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says the problem is an imagined one.
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