Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) is calling on the Trump administration to include fruit and vegetable processing plants in an executive order meant to keep meat processing facilities open during the coronavirus pandemic.
Braun requested the administration include canneries and frozen food suppliers in the order President Trump signed Tuesday evening to secure the U.S. supply of non-perishable foods.
“I urge you to use this authority to ensure that our nation’s supply chain of canned and frozen fruit and vegetables remains secure,” Braun wrote to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday.
He noted that produce has a short harvest and processing window and is particularly vulnerable.
“For example, our nation’s annual supply of canned and frozen corn, green beans, tomatoes, peaches and peas are harvested and packed within the span of two to three months,” he wrote.
Trump is using the Defense Production Act to order meat and poultry processing plants to stay open. The order provides Trump the authority to identify and include additional food supply chain resources.
The president’s decision came after estimates that meat production capacity nationwide could be reduced by as much as 80 percent and the chairman of Tyson Foods warning that the nation’s food supply was “breaking” as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
The executive order delegates the Agriculture secretary to take actions to ensure that meat and poultry processors continue operations.
The Produce Marketing Association, an industry trade group, estimated earlier this month that about $5 billion of fresh fruits and vegetables have already been wasted during the pandemic. Industry groups have been pressing the administration for action, including floating a voucher program to get those agricultural goods to food banks in need.
Groups are also calling for the Agriculture Department (USDA) to step in and purchase products to keep them from going to waste and to provide payments to producers — measures included in the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. Perdue has said the USDA is working to develop a program to do so.