Letter to Mike Pence, Vice President - Harder Asks Coronavirus Task Force to Add Agriculture Representative

Letter

Vice President Pence,

As the Chair of the Task Force entrusted with coordinating, preventing, and containing the spread of COVID-19 (or Coronavirus), it is critical to develop a knowledgeable team that can tackle the issue as effectively as possible. Given the impacts the Coronavirus pandemic will have on our nation's agricultural industry, including our food supply, I write to urge you to appoint to the Task Force a Task Force member focused exclusively on monitoring and mitigating the impacts of Coronavirus on farmers and developing policy solutions to those challenges.

During this time of uncertainty, it important that Americans have access to food. Along with severe concerns related to health, people in the United States are worried that the empty shelves they see if their grocery stores will persist. Appointing a Task Force member that can knowledgeably advocate on behalf of our producers, consumers, and distributors to bolster an uninterrupted supply of food and products will ensure our families have access to the food they need to survive this pandemic.

To date, farmers in my District and across the country are already seeing the impacts of this virus -- from losing the certainty of having a reliable and healthy workforce to ensuring they have the medical supplies they need--including Personal Protective Equipment--such as masks or gloves that ensure our farmers work in safe conditions. In California, Agriculture is already considered a critical infrastructure industry meaning it is exempt from the quarantine orders because it is deemed an essential industry needed to "strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure."

Our agriculture industry needs to be treated as an essential industry at the federal level and that is why I respectfully request that you include an Agriculture Task Force member to the Coronavirus Task Force. I appreciate your consideration and look forward to your response.

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