SCHUMER REVEALS: VITAL FARM PROGRAM IS TREATING UPSTATE NY FARMERS UNFAIRLY, STRIPPING SORELY-NEEDED FUNDING TO RECOVER FROM CURRENT TRADE CLIMATE; SCHUMER CALLS ON USDA FOR PARITY AND TO GIVE NY FARMERS THE ASSISTANCE THEY NEED & DESERVE ASAP

USDA’s Market Facilitation Program Has Distributed $25B To American Farms To Help Them Recover From Chaotic Global Trade Climate; New Data Shows Program Disproportionately Picked Winners & Losers, Harming Upstate Farmers; 95% Of Top Payment Rates Given To Southern Farmers

Schumer Urges USDA For Parity In Market Facilitation Program And To Better Support Small Upstate Farms

Schumer To USDA: Upstate Farms Are In Desperate Need Of Assistance & Program Is Short Changing NY Farmers

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today released a report detailing how the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Market Facilitation Program (MFP) has treated Upstate farmers unfairly—and launched a new effort to restore parity to the system. The MFP is designed to reimburse the farms that have been damaged by the turbulent trade climate across the globe, and has distributed $25 billion in mitigation payments to help farmers recover in recent months. However, Schumer explained, this funding was distributed unevenly, sending 95% of the top payment rates to southern farmers, who have been harmed less than other regions, and helping farms owned by billionaires and foreign-owned companies. 

To address this disparity that is negatively impacting Upstate farmers, who are in dire need of assistance, Schumer urged USDA to improve the MFP to better support small New York farmers. 

“This report shows that as Upstate farmers are grappling with extreme uncertainty caused by the chaotic global trade climate, USDA is using a flawed formula that helps big, wealthy farms and billion-dollar foreign-owned companies, while our small and family farms in New York have been left in the dust,” said Senator Schumer. “The USDA must stop picking winners and losers in such an unbalanced way, and instead ensure all of America’s and Upstate New York’s farmers get the help they need and deserve—not just a lucky few.”

Farmers across New York State are being treated unfairly in many ways, including: 

• Farmers in New York are receiving $41.10 less per acre than farmers in Georgia and other Southern states.
• Even within New York the difference in payments from county to county can be significant and cause similar farms to get vastly different payments. For example, Orleans County has a payment rate of $48 per acre, yet Warren County has a rate of $15 per acre. For an average-sized farm this is a difference in payments of $9,936 and $3,105 for Upstate farms that likely have very similar growing conditions
• At a county level, the average payment rate in New York was $28. However, many counties in southern states received the maximum payment rate of $150 per acre. With over 33,400 farms across New York, averaging about 207 acres each, NY farmers would receive a payment of about $5,796, while the same sized farm in one of these other southern counties would receive $31,050. (delta: $25,254)

• USDA currently ignores any trade damage not related to its own chaotic trade actions and largely shuts out Upstate New York’s specialty crops from direct assistance.
• Instead of taking steps to support small and beginning operations, USDA doubled the payment limit for row crop payments from $125,000 to $250,000. This change will concentrate payments even more in the large complicated farming conglomerates.
• Rather than using current production numbers, USDA based payments to dairy farmers on data that are 6 to 8 years old.

In the bipartisan 2018 Farm Bill, Congress provided balanced support to help farmers manage market instability across the country and provided permanent support for USDA export market development programs. Schumer raised concerns that the administration’s policy upends this careful compromise, replaces income from markets with government payments, creates vast inequities, and does not address the actual trade damage to farmers who have been hit the hardest.

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