Senator Tammy Baldwin is looking to increase relief funding to farmers being harmed by disruptions in the nation’s food supply chains.
Baldwin says her new Farming Support to States Act would directly help farmers whose main sources of sales are cut off during the pandemic response. She cites the examples of dairy farmers who usually sell to outfits that supply large food service partners.
“And these large-scale buyers, because of the pandemic and stay-at-home orders, their orders have dropped off at least like a cliff.”
Since dairy farms are always producing milk, being unable to sell that product has lead to milk dumping, among other issues.
“Many farmers in Wisconsin are finding they have to dump milk and there’s nothing more heartbreaking than that for somebody who worked hard to produce a high-quality nutritious product.”)
Baldwin says that even the smallest bump in the supply chain can cause massive disruptions, when the food industry is tooled to be as streamlined as possible.