USDA ‘mistakes’ led to food aid shortages

Sep 03, 2024

By Grace Yarrow, Meredith Lee Hill and Marcia Brown

With help from Blake Jones

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack acknowledged his department made "mistakes" in awarding a contract to a single distributor to supply critical food aid programs. | Charlie Neibergall/AP

QUICK FIX

— Pressure on USDA is mounting as tribal populations and low-income seniors across the country still grapple with food aid shortages.

— California’s legislature passed a bill banning schools in the state from serving foods with dyes and additives used in a number of brightly-colored snacks.

— Advocates of stricter federal labeling rules are arguing that USDA’s new guidance won’t do enough to stop “greenwashing” on meat and poultry labels.

IT’S TUESDAY, SEPT. 3. Welcome to Morning Agriculture. We’re your hosts Grace Yarrow, Meredith Lee Hill and Marcia Brown. Hope you didn’t miss us too much during our newsletter break last week! Send tips to gyarrow@politico.com and follow us at @Morning_Ag.

Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.

Driving the day

ICYMI: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack acknowledged his department made "mistakes" in awarding a contract to a single distributor to supply critical food aid programs, a change that has triggered food shortages among low-income populations in at least eight states, our Meredith Lee Hill and Marcia Brown reported last week.

Since the contract with distributor Paris Brothers Inc. began in April, tribes have reported delayed and missed deliveries as part of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations. The same issue has plagued the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which serves low-income seniors and food banks.

That's left some of those program partners without key food staples, and many are now warning the shortages could get much worse in the next few months.

"We're learning that our system was flawed, and mistakes were made," Vilsack said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO. "It's caused a lot of stress and a lot of difficulty, and we're trying to mitigate the consequences of that stress and difficulty as best we can."

The secretary added that USDA plans to bring Americold — the other distributor that previously fulfilled delivery contracts for the two food aid programs — back for a six-month contract, starting some time in the next few weeks.

USDA has also brought in FEMA officials to help speed up food delivery and plans to bring in representatives from the Department of Defense after temporary FEMA officers leave their positions — steps that could prove costly for taxpayers. Read more here.

Food Safety Watch

LISTERIA DEATHS RISE: At least nine people have died and 57 have been hospitalized due to a listeria outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meat products, according to a Centers for Disease Control update published Wednesday.

The deli meat recall is the largest listeria outbreak in the U.S. since 2011, when 33 people died from listeria tied to cantaloupe. The number of illnesses caused by the contaminated deli meat is expected to grow, since listeria symptoms can take up to 10 weeks to appear, per the CDC.

Federal inspectors found dozens of violations including the presence of mold, mildew and insects at a Virginia Boar’s Head plant, according to reports obtained first by CBS News.

A Boar's Head spokesperson told CBS that food safety is the company’s “absolute priority” and they deeply regret the impact of the recall. All operations at the Virginia plant in question have been suspended.

BANNING DYES IN GOLDEN STATE SCHOOLS: California lawmakers on Thursday voted to prohibit the state’s schools from serving food additives used in Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Twinkies and other fluorescent snacks, our Blake Jones reports from Sacramento.

The move, backers argue, is necessary to limit intake of dyes that have been linked to worsened behavioral issues in kids who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

“California has a responsibility to protect our students from chemicals that harm children and interfere with their ability to learn,” Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, the author of the bill, said in a statement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom still needs to sign the first-in-the-nation proposal. But fear of a children’s uprising did not prevent him from signing a similar bill last year that outlawed the sale of food containing a dye used in Peeps.

Industry opponents have been fighting this year’s bill and disputing reports about its damage to people’s health.

“It’s unfortunate that scientifically proven, safe ingredients have been demonized for the purpose of advancing a political agenda,” John Hewitt of the Consumer Brands Association said in a statement. “The passage of this bill could cost schools and families money, limit choice and access, and create consumer confusion.”

AROUND THE AGENCIES

‘GREENWASHING’ CRACKDOWN: USDA regulators are urging companies making environmental or animal welfare claims on their packaging to show more evidence backing up their labels under new guidance published Wednesday.

USDA is urging companies that want to make claims related to how an animal is raised or the environmental impact to employ a third-party verifier. The voluntary guidance also urges producers to conduct their own sampling and testing systems for antibiotics-related claims.

But advocates who have pressed for stricter labeling guidelines said that the changes don’t go far enough.

Molly Armus, animal agriculture policy program manager at Friends of the Earth, argued that because USDA still doesn’t require third-party certification of labels, the guidance won’t do enough to reduce “loopholes.”

“Industry can continue making false and misleading claims that undermine producers who are adhering to higher welfare and sustainability standards,” Armus said in a statement.

Other reactions: Zack Strong, acting director and senior attorney for the Animal Welfare Institute’s Farmed Animal Program, said the updated guidelines are “largely meaningless” and also pushed for required third-party certification.

“While the revised guidelines are a small step in the right direction, they remain insufficient to combat misleading label claims used to market meat and poultry products,” he said in a statement. Read more about the new guidelines from Marcia here.

FARM ECONOMY

VANISHING FAMILY FARMS: As lawmakers continue to fight over the next farm bill, a new book details the economic and cultural crisis threatening the U.S. food supply: the disappearance of family farms.

“Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family’s Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer,” by Brian Reisinger explores how America has lost an average of 45,000 farms per year for the last century — and how that crisis is driving up food prices, devastating rural economies and creating increasingly fragile food supply chains.

Row Crops

— More than 20 states have approved measures regulating foreign ownership over U.S. land between January 2023 to July 2024 — a signal of increased focus on potential national security issues tied to those investments, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service.

— New research illustrates how widespread micronutrient deficiency is, with more than half of the global population not consuming adequate levels of essential vitamins.

— ICYMI: A federal judge in Georgia struck a blow last week to the Biden administration’s attempts to expand labor protections for immigrant farm workers, ruling that the Labor Department overstepped its legal boundaries.

THAT’S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line and send us your agriculture job announcements or events: gyarrow@politico.com, meredithlee@politico.com, marciabrown@politico.com, abehsudi@politico.com and ecadei@politico.com.