Trade war with China leaves U.S. with food surplus

KANSAS CITY, Miss. (KSHB) – The trade war with China and tariffs are leading to more meat and produce in local food banks.

Because of the trade war, farmers are left with surplus crops they can’t sell overseas.

Under the Farm Bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now purchasing the crops to help farmers. The food they buy then goes to food banks.

Jessica Kear is the director of programs at Harvesters, a community food network. She said, “Harvesters receives products through the USDA through both states Missouri and Kansas for the Emergency Food Assistance Program or DEFAB. Some of that product is coming in because of the trade mitigation that is in place through some of the tariff work that is happening right now. A lot of that produce has been fresh produce like apples and potatoes and oranges and a lot of fresh milk pork products a lot of really quality food high-quality food that’s coming into our network.”