A farmer checks on young female pigs at a hog farm in Smithville, Ohio, U.S., on Thursday, April 30, 2020.
Dane Rhys | Bloomberg | Getty Images
As the coronavirus pandemic disrupts supply chains across the country, farmers are being forced to destroy their crops, dump milk and throw out perishable items that can’t be stored.
With restaurants and schools shuttered during national lockdown, prices and demand for essential agricultural products has fallen. Farmers who have already endured a slew of financial hardships over the past few years — from the U.S.-China trade war that sent scores of farms out of business to floods that wiped out entire harvests — are now left with an abundance of food that they can’t sell.
President Donald Trump recently announced a $19 billion relief program, called the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, that will provide $16 billion in payments to farmers and ranchers and $3 billion in purchases of fresh produce, dairy products and meat to be…
