USDA CARES Act spending draws questions

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USDA CARES Act spending draws questions

Fri, 06/26/2020 - 02:27
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued about $1.4 billion to agricultural producers to provide a boost amid the coronavirus pandemic. What is unclear is how the department calculated those distributions. “We lack some pretty key transparency on how they get to the payment,” an assistant professor of agriculture at the University of Illinois, Jonathan Coppess, said. Payouts are part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program launched by the USDA in April to maintain the food supply chain and feed hungry Americans. CFAP includes a total of $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers. So far, Midwestern states – led by Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas – have received the bulk of the money. Livestock producers have been top recipients overall. The USDA releases weekly tallies of where the money goes without telling how determinations are made. “USDA’s provided information that tends to argue that their methodology involves some estimate of…

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