Source: US HOUSE AG COMMITTEE, 11/3/21

House Agriculture Chairman David Scott of Georgia delivered the following statement at today's hearing “The Immediate Challenges to our Nation’s Food Supply Chain”.

[As prepared for delivery]

Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing as we discuss a critical issue that impacts every single person in this country -- the immediate challenges to our nation’s food supply chain.

Today’s hearing will be an important look into how widespread these supply chain issues are, the logistics involved with ensuring our shelves are stocked, how the food and agriculture industry has had to pivot to rise to the moment, and ultimately, what Congress and our House Agriculture Committee can do to alleviate these disruptions.

To start -- the supply chain challenges are widespread and unprecedented. They are not limited to food and agriculture, and they are global in nature. These challenges were largely driven by the pandemic and have persisted, due to the uneven recovery and the Delta variant of COVID-19. The pandemic created significant new challenges, and it revealed and intensified other issues in our supply chain that existed before the pandemic, like labor shortages and shortages of our critically important truck drivers. For example, the food service distribution industry has an estimated 17,500 warehouse positions and 15,000 driver positions currently open.

Congress and this Committee have been working with the Administration to get to the bottom of these challenges and understand how we can partner with industry to assist the recovery and rebuilding process.

Some of our House Agriculture Subcommittees have already held hearings on specific sectoral concerns, including the beef supply chain and small and local supply chains. We also had a meeting with the Federal Maritime Commission to discuss shipping issues and possible remedies. This full Committee hearing will take a broader, holistic view of the food and agriculture supply chain.

While these supply chain disruptions are serious and unprecedented, it is important to remember that we are not facing a scarcity of food and agricultural commodities. The U.S. is still the world’s best producer of an abundant, secure food supply. Despite the challenges our agricultural industry is facing, it is also still on pace to set record export levels. And in the cases of commodities that have enjoyed higher prices recently, those prices are welcomed by farmers, many of whom suffered from low prices for years prior to the market improving.

I also do not want to understate that these complex disruptions are causing economic hardship, delays, limited product choices, increased costs of production, and most notable for much of the American public, increased prices for consumer goods.

We are committed to doing our part in Congress and the House Agriculture Committee to shine a light on these issues and partner with industry and the Administration to find solutions. I commend President Biden for his hard work to take these supply chain challenges head on, as evidenced by his recent deal with ports to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the workforce development provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The President also had the wisdom to include Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as one of the co-chairs of his Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force. Secretary Vilsack has announced significant USDA resources, targeted toward resolving the bottlenecks in the food and agriculture supply chain. I look forward to working with him to help our incredible food and agriculture industry get through these formidable challenges.

With that, I’d now like to welcome the distinguished Ranking Member, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Thompson, for any opening remarks he would like to give.