ACTIONAIDUSA: …As this article in the Washington Post explores the USDA’s plans in more detail. The U.S. peanut surplus came about under incentives created in an updated Farm Bill passed in 2014. Through a complex system of subsidies, the bill encouraged more peanut production – so U.S. farmers planted more peanuts, pushing down prices and resulting in a huge surplus.
The cost of warehousing for this peanut surplus is too great – leading to the U.S. government’s decision to give them away.
Simply put, the USDA’s plans to dump 500 metric tons of U.S. grown peanuts into Haiti set to destroy the livelihoods of many of the people the U.S. government has sought to help since the devastating 2010 earthquake… (more)
