Source: NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE COALITION, 5/22/20


This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced much anticipated details of the new Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) which will begin accepting applications from farmers on May 26, 2020. CFAP will provide $16 billion in aid to farmers who suffered economic losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, making it by far, the largest single payment in history to our nation’s farmers.

And while NSAC is glad to see much-needed relief begin to flow to farmers, many of whom have been on the frontlines, continuing their work to feed their communities in this time of crisis, there are several shortcomings in the program that will make it more difficult for some farmers to seek relief.

In short, we expect the program to work best for those operations with the simplest production systems who can demonstrate a loss in price or sales this year, and who sell into commodity and wholesale markets. Unfortunately, like many USDA programs, CFAP will prove more difficult for diversified farms, those that sell into local and regional markets, and value-added producers (organic, grassfed, etc).

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