Two of the major challenges the food supply chain has had this year are the pandemic and cyberattacks. Due to those issues, officials in Washington D.C. are taking action to help build a stronger U.S. food industry. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says they plan to invest over $4 billion to help out. “Supply chain issues have arisen throughout the last couple of years in several sectors of our economy, transportation, energy, and manufacturing, to name just three. President Biden is keenly aware of the impact, and he’s leading an effort with the signing of Executive Order 14017 to begin to address the variety of challenges we have relative to supply chain,” Vilsack said.
He explained that supply chain issues have caused people to worry about the ag system we have in place in this country. “A system where nearly 90% of farms fail to generate a majority of income for those who own and operate the farm, a system that is currently leading to significant productivity gains but at the expense of an alarming rate of topsoil loss and soil health, and water quality,” he went on to say, “A nutrition system that often provides food but can fail to provide adequate nourishment, and a system that has seen rapid consolidation and a lack of competition. And finally, a system that has lacked equity for socially disadvantaged producers, and a fair shot for small and medium-sized producers.”
Vilsack said that leads him to believe a “transformational change” is what the food and ag system needs. He also talked about how the large investment will be placed into four separate categories. “In the food production area, we hope to make this system more resilient by continuing to build on our efforts at attracting beginning farmers by providing significant transition assistance, as those who wish to transition to a more value-added proposition can do so without necessarily being economically penalized, and assistance as well for those who work on our farm fields and in our manufacturing and processing facilities,” he explained.
The processing side of agriculture was another aspect Vilsack brought up. “On the processing side, we hope to be able to provide resources to improve existing small and mid-sized processing facilities, to be able to cope and manage with the current challenges they face because of COVID,” he talked about the big plans ahead, “But we also want to look at creating a new opportunity for the federal government to partner with state and local governments to see whether or not there is an opportunity to expand with new processing facilities and capacity to make our system more resilient. In the food distribution aggregation area, we look to be able to expand and increase the number of food hubs, particularly those that will operate in high-poverty areas. We look to work with food banks and those involved to develop cooperative agreements between food banks and producers so that we create additional market opportunities for small and mid-sized producers.”
The USDA also wants to try and expand the availability of healthier foods, as well as food banks around the country, especially in areas that are in need. Financial resources come from a few places such as the American Rescue Plan, and some of the USDA program resources.
