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Read below article taken from IEG Policy platform dated
14/04/20
On Wednesday, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue spoke of rolling out
COVID-19 aid for farmers as a priority, with the USDA hoping to
unveil its initial assistance plan "sooner rather than later".
"We are in the process right now of collecting proposals and
ideas from every sector affected so we can be ... balanced and fair
in the allocation of the $9.5 billion, as well as what we have
currently in Commodity Credit Corporation, which is approximately
$6 billion," Perdue told reporters.
Also on Wednesday, the union in the US representing grocery and
pharmacy workers as well as employees at food processing and
meatpacking plants urged the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) to issue mandatory guidance to better protect them
from the novel coronavirus.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
(UFCW) called for quick action to ensure its more than 1.3 million
food and retail workers - who are "on the public frontlines" of the
pandemic - are afforded adequate safeguards from COVID-19.
The demands come as grocers and restaurateurs in the US
continued struggling to keep up with the deepening health crisis,
working to boost employee health and safety in a shifting risk
environment, while also demanding that government step in and do
more to help, including beefing up financial rescue packages for
small businesses. Walmart, on April 6, was slapped with a wrongful
death lawsuit after two employees of a Supercenter in Evergreen
Park, Ill. —Wando Evans and Phillip Thomas — died due to
complications of COVID-19.
Europe's fruit and veg sector under
pressure
In Europe, the fruit and veg sector was among those revealing
the strain of the pandemic last week. Insufficient numbers of
seasonal workers, decreased efficiency in packing houses due to
social distancing, increased documentation requirements and greater
transportation costs were weighing heavily on the sector.
On Thursday (April 9), EU finance ministers agreed a €500
billion aid package to help the bloc face the economic and social
crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Among the critics of the package were green groups who said that
the EU's plans to allocate emergency funds to deal with the
COVID-19 pandemic was moving away from the sustainability ambition
of the European Green Deal, the bloc's 2050 climate-neutral
plan.
Greenpeace EU climate policy adviser Sebastian Mang said
"business as usual is no longer an option - only a just and green
recovery can reboot our economy and make our societies more
resilient."
EU member state action
Among the EU's member states, Bulgaria's Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Forestry drafted a regulation to oblige the
country's retailers to make sure that more than half of the offered
food products were made by local producers.
Italy's agriculture minister Teresa Bellanova said that Italian
authorities were issuing fines ranging from €15,000 to €60,000 to
anyone who engages in unfair market practices that affect
Italian-made food products and damage their reputation.
Spain approved an urgent decree to secure an adequate
agricultural workforce amid people's movement restrictions,
targeting upcoming stone fruit and strawberry harvests.
Spirits drinks producers in Denmark and Sweden received approval
to tweak their production to products that are a larger pressing
public health need for - like hand sanitiser.
Portugal's food safety and economic monitoring authority (ASAE)
issued a set of instructions addressing key questions for the
national food industry, including the issue of COVID-19
transmission risk via food products.
Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary
Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) has announced it has simplified
procedures for processing batches of animal and vegetable products
imported into Russia considering the global fallout from
COVID-19.
