The pushback from one of Trump’s largest group of supporters, rural
America and those who farm it, warranted a change. Those changes
were supposed to take effect in 2020 but were disrupted by a global
pandemic: COVID-19.
SHUT THE GATES
Just across the great blue pond, people were discovering that the
coronavirus wasn’t a short-lived disease outbreak. A full-blown
pandemic quickly ensued and found its way to America’s shores.
States began closing in early March and by April 1, a majority of
the 331 million people living in the U.S. were following quarantine
guidelines from their home.
The global pandemic put even more strain on the oil and gas
industry as stay-at-home orders drastically reduced the number
of cars on the road in early 2020. Some parts of the country saw
gasoline prices drop below $1 a gallon.
Rural America might’ve been quarantined just the same as residents
in New York City, but it’s not difficult to practice social distancing
when your job is spent in the seat of a tractor dead center of a 100-
acre field. For producers, life didn’t change a whole lot.
“The pandemic is a great example of how the Trump
administration has stepped up and helped us move forward in
these challenging times,” said Chelsea Good, Livestock Marketing
Association Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs and
Legal. “The White House and Department of Homeland Security
sent out guidelines for who needed to continue doing business
because they were critical.”
These guidelines made it abundantly clear that the agricultural
industry was included in the definition of essential. This allowed
agriculture to make adjustments but continue with business as
usual. Time waits for no man, and the American agriculturalist
knows this better than anyone. Delays in planting or delivering
livestock to harvest would’ve proven immediately detrimental to the
farming and ranching community.
“The White House also sent out a Presidential Directive that made
sure our meat processing plants were able to function,” Good added.
“Without that directive, we could’ve lost the ability to keep the beef
supply flowing.”
Neither blizzard nor global pandemic will keep farmers and ranchers
from caring for their crops and livestock. Trump made it official with
his executive order that dubbed the agricultural industry a collective
group of essential workers. Farmers and ranchers perfected the
work-from-home scenario long before it was a possibility for any
other industry.
It only took a global pandemic for people to realize how important
the agricultural industry was to a thriving economy. Although the
Trump administration developed assistance programs for the
general population, they didn’t forget about rural America in that.
Following on the heels of the $19 billion Coronavirus Food
Assistance Program, the USDA announced, on April 19, that they
would purchase and distribute $3 billion in agricultural products.
The agency worked with various locations to find areas that were hit
the hardest to both purchase and distribute the fresh produce, dairy,
and meat products.
In a live webinar hosted by the USDA, panelists discussed the finer
details of how the “Farmers to Family Food Box” would function.
Trump and his administration designed the program to help prevent
producers from destroying their crops and livestock as demand was
driven downward by the pandemic.
During the webinar, Agricultural Marketing Service Deputy
Administrator for the Commodity Procurement Program Dave
Tuckwiller said, “Most of you are living and breathing through the
toughest situation right now. We’ve heard reports, and talked to a
number of you, that are dumping fresh produce and milk. There’s
talk of euthanizing certain farm animals. Food distributors are laying
off employees as the need plummeted on the food service side.”
Tuckwiller continued by pointing out how food bank needs have
increased while donations and volunteers virtually disappeared.
This program was designed to link those challenges together
with a solution.
“Traditionally, the cattle industry doesn’t get handouts, they
just want to be paid for their product,” Good said. “It’s been an
unprecedented time frame where something else was needed and
the administration was able to do that.”
Good added that some producers saw payments as early as a week
after taking action.
2018 FARM BILL
Although negotiations for the Agriculture Improvement Act of
2018, aka the farm bill, went well past the expiration date of the
previous bill, the resulting document might’ve been worth the wait.
The $87 billon farm bill was hyper-focused on improving support
programs, crop insurance, disaster programs, and conservation
efforts on farm ground.
One area that saw a lot of change in the farm bill was the
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In an effort to reward U.S.
producers for their efforts to be good stewards of the land, the
CRP furthered this agenda and was geared towards building a
partnership in the process.
“The CRP was a nice change,” Sampson said. “It made the program
more attractive for people to use. It allowed for marginal-yield farm
ground that didn’t need to be farmed to get back into the program.
It’s good for agriculture because it takes acres out of production and
it lets some ground go back to its native habitat.”
The CRP primarily provides landowners with financial compensation
for voluntarily removing land from production. That land is typically
vulnerable to erosion and is more environmentally sensitive.
Removing these acres from production requires those landowners
to either preserve the wildlife habitat in that area or install resourceconserving
efforts.
The farm bill was also helpful for the livestock industry. It required
the USDA to conduct a feasibility study to determine if creating a
livestock dealer statutory trust was necessary.
160 The TRUMP RALLY Publication