U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is scheduled to testify before members of the Senate Ag Committee tomorrow morning, including Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.
Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, and a Democrat, wants policies at the U.S.D.A. which Grassley tells Radio Iowa will make it difficult to pass a bipartisan Farm Bill. This includes increasing SNAP benefits by $250 billion.
Grassley adds even with record farm income, almost half of farmers have negative farm income, with the largest 10% of the farms receiving 70% of commodity payments.
He wants payment cap legislation that targets farm programs specifically for small and medium-sized farmers that are actively engaged in farming.
As the 2023 Farm Bill continues to take shape, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, announced an "Agriculture Advisory Board" during a town hall event at Alpha Ag Research in Sanborn this morning. For more on the story from the Sioux City Journal click here.
NPR noted in February that a majority of spending in the bill is related to nutrition. Feenstra wants to see a food assistance program that isn’t just giving people a paycheck but getting them "out of poverty."
The head of the Community Action Agency a group that helps with programs for low-income Siouxlanders says the area is impacted by food deserts.
“How far is it for me to get to a grocery store? Is it more than a mile for me to get to a grocery store? I'm probably living in a food desert then. And then you've got to think about what kind of choice do I have when I get to that grocery store? Is it going to be affordable for me to be able to shop there? Do I have to get on a bus to try to get somewhere? And then how many groceries? Can I carry back with me when I'm on the bus? And we've got a lot of families in Sioux City that don't really have access.”
“I think we need to remember that some families are relying on maybe like a local gas station or the Dollar General Store that might be in their neighborhood. We have a lot of food deserts within those four counties (Woodbury/Plymouth/Cherokee/Ida).”
That’s Executive Director Jean Logan who says many are affected by a downturn in the economy.
“People have certainly been impacted by the cut to food assistance that occurred when the declaration went out that ended the Pandemic, people had been receiving, like the full award amount for food assistance. And once that declaration came, we really saw a tremendous spike in the number of people that needed help with our food pantry.”
Source: kwit.org
Categories: Iowa, Government & Policy