By Rep. Paul Anderson
Each one of us, in some fashion, has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it's being laid off from work, working from home, or having kids not in school doing extended learning in front of a computer screen. There will be no spring sports season for high school athletes, and no senior proms, either. Restaurants and bars are scrambling to keep some semblance of business activity going by offering take-out meals and off-sale beverages.
As the battle to bring the virus under control goes on, it appears that agriculture and food production are taking a heavy hit. As more ag processing facilities shut down or slow production, the entire system backs up and results in raw commodities being destroyed for lack of space. First, it was in dairy that we saw pictures of milk being dumped because processors couldn't handle the changes in demand for the product brought on by the closure of schools and other institutional markets.
Now, we are hearing about production slowdowns in the livestock processing industry. Hogs that are ready for market are being euthanized because plants are backing up. Chickens are also being put down because the demand for egg products has changed. According to those involved in the production of pork, we are currently short of processing capacity by at least 100,000 head daily. That's a huge number and a logistical and financial nightmare for those involved in hog production.
According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, it's estimated we are dumping around 3.7 million gallons of milk each day, or about 5 percent of the nation's production. One chicken processor is destroying about 750,000 unhatched eggs every week that this goes on. In other examples of the system backing up, an Idaho onion grower is burying one million pounds of product because his traditional markets have disappeared. And in south Florida, millions of pounds of ripe vegetables are being plowed back into the soil for the same reason.
All this product being destroyed means that it will not be showing up in grocery stores in coming days and weeks. It would be the ultimate irony if we saw shortages on store shelves at the same time the raw commodities are being destroyed on the farm.
Donations to food shelves are being increased. We just allocated over $1 million for additional purchases of milk and other protein for distribution by Second Harvest Heartland here in Minnesota. It's a shame to see good food go to waste, but because of limited storage space and refrigeration, it's impossible to distribute the huge quantities of raw food being talked about here.
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With so many folks being out of work, claims for unemployment have skyrocketed. Up until now, those who are self-employed or independent contractors have been left out. That has changed, and now, they are also eligible. So, those who own hair salons or barber shops, for example, can collect benefits. On the DEED website application, it has been saying that those involved in that type of work are ineligible. However, as checks are now being sent out, the self-employed and independent contractors will also be receiving benefits.
Another area the Legislature needs to address is the tax treatment of loans from the federal government that are forgiven. Over $7 billion in Payroll Protection Plan funds have been distributed to businesses in Minnesota. If forgiven, those funds are considered tax-free on the federal level, but are currently taxable here. We need to change that so folks don't get a surprise when filing their Minnesota tax returns next year.
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