In the News: As We Are All Quarantined, Fighting over the 2 Trillion Coronavirus Rescue Bill Still Continues! Make Sure Family Farmers are Covered in the Rescue Bill!

Posted on March 24, 2020

Coronavirus Rescue Bill is Still Being Hashed out on the Floor!

The House and Senate passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act last week, which is a bill that will help people deal with some of the ramifications of the COVID-19 emergency. The bill will help provide food security for low-income and vulnerable people, provide paid leave to some workers, provide additional funding for unemployment insurance, and establishes free testing for COVID-19. Unfortunately, the bill doesn’t cover the hourly wage earners and small business owners nation wide.

As of the writing of this newsletter, the House and Senate continue to fight over the proposed 2 Trillion Dollar Coronavirus Rescue Bill, which bails out large corporations, but still doesn’t do enough to help health care workers, people who have lost their jobs, or small business owners. It also has no oversight as to how corporations have to use the money.

Needless to say, we are also coming into this situation with a huge tax shortfall due to the cuts the administration gave to businesses and corporations last year. Our government is being run by idiots!

https://www.facebook.com/michelle.esrick/videos/10218713094596562/?fref=mentions

As a NOFA Board Member, we need your help TODAY: Congress is making decisions right now about aid for people and businesses impacted by the pandemic.

Make sure that New York’s farmers get the support they need to continue feeding our communities! Contact your members of Congress today (thanks to our friends at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition for providing this contact form)

Here’s what we need from a COVID-19 aid package:

Direct payments to farmers who have lost revenue from local and regional markets due to the crisis.
Increase flexibility of SNAP benefits to ensure that as many farms and markets as possible can accept SNAP now
Investment in community-based emergency efforts to buy food from farmers and get it to those who need it most.
Expanded access to credit and debt flexibility to ensure farmers can plant, grow, and harvest the food we need this year.

In the months ahead, the resilience of our farm and food system will be an essential factor in determining our success in responding to this pandemic – now is the time for critical investments in farmers that make our agriculture system more equitable, resilient, and sustainable.