‘Just do the best we can’

SDFB president VanderWal sees ‘economy poised to bounce back’

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BROOKINGS – “This whole thing is out of the entire economic impact that basically shut down our entire society. There is not a number (of dollars) that’s enough to make up for that. It doesn’t matter how you look at it. All we can do is just do the best we can.”

In the face of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on agriculture, that’s the view of Volga farmer (corn, soybeans and cattle) Scott VanderWal in response to the federal government’s $23.5 billion relief package for the American agricultural community. He spoke with The Brookings Register in a phone interview on May 6.

Since 2004, VanderWal has served as president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau. Additionally, since January 2016, he has served as vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

VanderWal noted that there are “all kinds of products out there, animals that cannot be processed because plants are shutdown and produce being wasted and plowed under.”

Meanwhile juxtaposing that “are, at the same time, lines several blocks long at food banks with people who need help and need food.” It’s a situation he thought he “would never see in our country.”

But he doesn’t see food shortages “in farm country. Farmers are going back to work. We’re planting the crops. We’re coming into the new season now when fruits and vegetables will be coming on. The issue will be whether we can hire enough labor to harvest it … and get it to market.”   

On a more optimistic note, VanderWal sees “the economy poised to bounce back. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for everything we did before this started. Travel, restaurants, golf courses and movie theaters and all those things that are hurting so badly.”

He admits to not knowing how long it will take “to return to what we call normal. The longer we take the harder it’s going to be. There has been so much economic damage done now, so much money that hasn’t been earned. It’s going to take awhile to dig out and get the economy fired up again – that’s in all aspects.”

Will take time to spring back

While the many intertwining parts of the overall total economy were recognized, VanderWal said “until we saw pieces of it shutting down, I don’t think we really realized what an impact it could have. We’ve got farmers who can’t sell their hogs or cattle or whatever they produce. They’re out there ready for market at the same time we have people standing in food lines and we have lost that link in the chain. That is the heartbreaking part of this whole thing.”

There is plenty of food available; the challenge is getting it to people in need. Some farmers have been forced to destroy livestock, plow crops under and dump milk – an oversupply of products they couldn’t sell.

One partial solution to that dilemma would be to move some crops directly from farms to food banks. A few days after the Register’s interview with VanderWal, President Trump gave his approval for the government to purchase $3 billion worth of dairy, meat and produce from farmers and ranchers and give those items directly to food banks.

VanderWal also noted that he and AFBF President Zippy Duvall have “suggested a partnership between Feeding America and the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) where they would give the food banks vouchers. Farmers and producers who have products they can’t sell can at least get those locally to people that need it, with the USDA eventually paying for it.

“That’s going to start on a local basis. You can’t do it nationwide where you’ve got to transport things or process an awful lot.”

A May 8 news release by the USDA noted that the agency had “approved $1.2 billion in contracts for the Farmers to Families Food Box program designed to connect excess, meat, dairy and produce on farms with families facing food insecurity.”

Duvall applauded the USDA program “for its quick action and flexibility in finding a way to get food from America’s farms to the dinner tables of those who need it most.” 

Citing the local level here in South Dakota, VanderWal explained that “local locker plants are completely full, just swamped because when this started, people started buying hogs and cattle directly from producers. There is just so much that these local plants can handle as well.”

Citing price declines for many of America’s farm products, VanderWal said “it will take some time to spring back. We have to pick up the demand for those products first of all and then the prices will come back. … We need to get our own economy going again and get people back to work so it picks up the economy so that all aspects of it are firing again.”

He noted that while South Dakota “is not one of the biggest states agriculturally, our entire economy relies on agriculture.”

Bottom line: VanderWal recognizes that “we need to get the economy going again and get people back to work. Obviously human health is priority No. 1; but the virus is out there and we’re going to have to learn to live with it, … and get back to normal life as quickly as we can.”

  

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.