Farmers are still waiting for $19 billion in coronavirus aid

By the time the US Department of Agriculture announced a $19 billion aid package on April 17, farmers were already dumping milk and destroying fresh produce as demand from restaurants evaporated.

It could be weeks longer before any of the money, most of which was appropriated by Congress in March as part of its $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package, gets to the farmers who need it.

A sign-up system for $16 billion in payments isn’t expected to be up and running until the end of May. The remaining $3 billion will be used to purchase food and deliver it to food banks, which the agency says may begin in about two weeks.

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“USDA is working as quickly as possible to implement the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program,” a spokesperson said in an email to CNN.

The delay worries Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nicole Fried, a Democrat who’s elected to her position. A report from her department projected that Florida fruit and vegetable growers lost $522 million through mid-April.

“I fear that by the time these purchases move forward it will be too late in the season for many of our producers to participate with so much of their harvests already lost,” Fried wrote in a letter she sent to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on April 20.

Source: Farmers are still waiting for $19 billion in coronavirus aid