Chad Smith, NAFB News Service

House Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson said last week that turkey growers weren’t treated fairly in the first round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. The Hagstrom Report says Peterson wants turkey producers to get in on the next round of coronavirus aid to come out of Congress. “The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payment is based on how much damage was done by COVID-19,” he said at the Minnesota Turkey Growers annual meeting. “In my opinion, there were many producers who weren’t treated correctly by this program, including turkey producers.” Sarah Anderson, Executive Director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers, says her group would absolutely like to be included in the next round of aid from CFAP. Anderson says the turkey industry doesn’t have the published data that the pork and beef industries have when it comes to the impact of COVID-19. “We’ve been working to provide data to the USDA so they know how much financial assistance growers will need,” Anderson says. “We’ve seen a loss in production for growers, so we want to make sure they’re covered.”