Feeding America Should Become a Federal Priority
The Sept. 11 attacks inspired a department of homeland security. Should Covid-19 do the same for food security?
An oversupply of crops.
Source: Barcroft Media
It was mid-April when Rosa DeLauro, a Democratic Representative from Connecticut, realized that the U.S. had entered the early stages of a food crisis. Thousands of minimum-wage food workers were contracting Covid-19. Major meat-processing plants were shutting down. Livestock producers were euthanizing their animals by the tens of thousands. Vegetable growers were plowing unsold produce back into the soil. Millions of jobless, hungry Americans were signing up for food relief.
“I was watching the food-supply chain break down right in front of my eyes,” DeLauro told me. “We have more than enough supply, but we can’t get it to the folks who need it. And we’re not protecting those who produce it.”