Overcoming shame, Americans ask food banks for help
Two of every five people visiting food banks “never had to ask for help for food” before — a gauge of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, said the chief operating officer of Feeding America. Katie Fitzgerald said food banks are facing, on average, a 70 percent increase in demand.
Protect farmworkers to assure food supply, say advocacy groups
Farmworkers are “especially at risk of falling ill from Covid-19” because they often work without protective equipment, are exposed to pesticides, and live in crowded quarters, said the advocacy groups Environmental Working Group and Farmworker Justice on Wednesday.
Depressed ethanol consumption to last through 2021
U.S. gasoline consumption will be 11 percent lower this year than in 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying economic slowdown, said an Energy Department agency in a monthly report. Ethanol use will experience a similar decline, according to the Short-Term Energy Outlook.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
King expects House ‘exoneration’ (Sioux City Journal): Iowa Rep. Steve King says House Republican leaders have decided to restore his committee assignments and seniority on the panels, which include the Agriculture Committee, 16 months after the party stripped him of the posts for asking why the language of white supremacy had “become offensive.”
ADM optimistic on China (Reuters): The chief executive of grain trader Archer Daniels Midland said he remained optimistic that China will satisfy the terms of the so-called “phase one” trade agreement calling for massive purchases of U.S. food, agricultural, and seafood exports.
Toledo drops Lake Erie appeal (Toledo Blade): The city of Toledo has withdrawn its appeal of a federal court ruling that invalidated the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, approved by city voters in 2019 and intended as a lever against runoff that polluted the lake.
Lawsuit over USDA relocations (UCS): The Union of Concerned Scientists and American Oversight sued the USDA in federal court to force the release of documents involving the relocation of two research agencies to Kansas City and into a building owned by a prominent Republican donor in Kansas.
More ag contraction in Midwest (Minneapolis Fed): More than two-thirds of farm lenders in the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank district said that farm incomes decreased during January, February, and March, mainly due to the coronavirus, and that the outlook for April, May, and June was for continued contraction.
