On Friday, the US Department of Agriculture announced an $18 billion “Coronavirus Food Assistance Program” to help farmers, ranchers and consumers preserve the food supply chain. The news follows reports that farmers have been forced to destroy unsellable produce, throwing out milk and other food products they have been unable to sell. The US Commerce Department reported in April that sales at food and drinking services dropped by 27% in March.
“We have been sold the idea that the way we produce food in this country is the only way. That’s the most productive. That’s the most efficient way. But we’re seeing that being dismantled before our very eyes with this pandemic,” Starbuck told host Brian Becker on Wednesday.
“It really exposed the weaknesses of the system, and I would say one of the biggest contributors to these faults is that we have a very concentrated food system. Very few companies have a lot of power, and when you have, for instance, one pork processing plant close in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that wipes out 5% of all hog processing in the whole country. So, when you have the power in the hands of a few corporations that control every aspect of food production, and there’s a stop of service within there, you’re going to see these horrendous changes. You’re going to see farmers without markets to bring their cattle, their livestock to auction. We’re going to find food and vegetable producers who no longer can sell their produce,” she said.
An April 2020 report by the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute suggests that crop prices could fall as much as 10% in the 2020-21 marketing year. Meanwhile, livestock prices could drop by as much as 12% this year due to the pandemic.
According to Action Aid USA, changes to farm policies in the 1970s mean that corporations are paying farmers increasingly less for their crops. As a result, farmers have been forced to farm as many acres as possible and expand into “environmentally sensitive areas” to pay their bills.
“I think I'll go back to the example of broiler chicken contractors,” Starbuck said. “So, that is one of the most highly integrated livestock categories that we have. So, as I mentioned, a company Perdue Farms, for instance, would own the chicks that they deliver. Basically, all the risks that come from farming - because there’s a lot of risk from farming; you can have animals get sick; you can have animals die - all that falls onto the farmer, as does the burden of disposing of the immense amounts of manure waste that animals produce.”
“So, if you’re Perdue, if your farmer does very well, and you get some very robust chickens, you profit from that. But if the chickens die, you cut that out of their paycheck. Farmers don’t get paid for chickens that are sick,” Starbuck explained.
“Whenever there is an economic disruption like this, it’s usually the smaller business that would go under … if they don’t have the massive resources that these big production companies have. Nor do they have lobbyists pushing for their share of the bill,” she added, arguing that more aid should be given to smaller, more sustainable farms to prevent food industry consolidation and the problems it causes.