U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on May 4 announced details of $470 million in Section 32 food purchases to occur in the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, in addition to purchases previously announced.
Onions are not on the purchase list, but according the Greg Yielding, National Onion Association executive vice president, programs like these don’t typically benefit growers anyway.
“These types of programs do not often end up helping the farmers,” Yielding said. “Food programs as they are designed now, including the Farms to Families food box program, benefit the middle men (distributors) more than the farmers. This week, we will propose a new program to the USDA designed to directly benefit onion growers.”
USDA says that it determines food purchases based on industry requests, market analysis and food bank needs. Yielding thinks that the shelf life of onions may have been a factor in excluding onions from the purchase, though other short-life commodities like strawberries and cherries made the cut.
“As far as we can tell, onions are not on any approved commodity list available for sale through the USDA, and we need to be. Onions are not included on the USDA’s 2019-20 lists, including Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or the USDA Foods in Schools program. We suspect that has more to do with the nature of onions’ storage and shelf life,” said Yielding.
Here is the full list of the USDA $470 million in Section 32 food purchases to occur in the third quarter of fiscal year 2020:
| Commodity | Purchase Amount |
| Asparagus | $5,000,000 |
| Catfish Products | $30,000,000 |
| Chicken | $30,000,000 |
| Dairy Products | $120,000,000 |
| Haddock, Pollock, Redfish (Atlantic) | $20,000,000 |
| Orange Juice | $25,000,000 |
| Pears | $5,000,000 |
| Pollock (Alaska) | $20,000,000 |
| Pork | $30,000,000 |
| Potatoes | $50,000,000 |
| Prunes | $5,000,000 |
| Raisins | $15,000,000 |
| Strawberries | $35,000,000 |
| Sweet Potatoes | $10,000,000 |
| Tart Cherries | $20,000,000 |
| Turkey Products | $50,000,000 |
| Total | $470,000,000 |
Additional information on these purchase and distribution programs is available on the Agricultural Marketing Service website and the Food and Nutrition Service website.
