WASHINGTON, April 17 (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump has announced a new $19 billion relief program for US farmers and ranchers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated shutdowns.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday that his administration would be implementing a new relief program aimed at supporting farmers with direct cash subsidies as well as purchasing farm goods for distribution to those in need.

“America now knows more than ever that the wholesome food that our families depend on” comes from US farmers, US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said at the press conference.
In recent weeks, Americans have seen the “heroic patriotism of our food supply workers," he said.

Purdue said the new US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Assistance Program would include two parts: one is direct payments totaling $16 billion, the other is the buying of farm goods. Trump noted the USDA would get another $14 billion in July towards the Food Assistance Program.

The secretary explained that the cash payments would depend in part on the roughly $6.6 billion still in the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), a New Deal-era, government-owned agency that exists to stabilize agricultural prices, but that it would also lean on "COVID money" until the CCC's budget is replenished in July.

The USDA will also be spending $3 billion to buy up produce, dairy products and meat to distribute through food banks and other community and faith-based organizations to those in need. This, he said, would hopefully avert as much destruction of agricultural goods as possible.

The New York Times reported on April 11 that US farmers were being forced to destroy millions of pounds of crops and other foodstuffs because of the severe disruptions in the food supply chain. Not only have restaurants closed their doors, but so have schools that feed millions of children.