To participate in another proceeding please exit this one and like back in later. Any that a member encounters technical issues that prevent them from being recognized from their questioning i will move to the next available member of the same body and will recognize the member of the next appropriate timeslot provided they have returned to the proceeding. In the event the witness loses connectivity during testimony or questioning i will preserve their time as staff address technical issue. I may need to recess the proceedings to provide time for the witness to reconnect. Finally remembered to remain muted until you recognize to minimize background noise. Over the last few months the outbreak of covid19 has led to an unprecedented Public Health crisis and creating a dire economic crisis for small firms. Three out of four businesses are experiencing a decrease in revenue and over half of Small Businesses are concerned about being forced to close. Small businesses across the Food Supply Chain system had been impacted. As social distancing and state orders became commonplace, the closing of commercial kitchens, food restaurants and workers at the frontline of the pandemic and the ripple effects hurt small firms across the Food Production processing and retail chains. Companies that process and deliver food to commercial businesses face abrupt order consolations across the entire customer base. Farmers who plant crops and attended livestock for months based on prepandemic demands aa mark were unable to find processors to sell their products. Fishing boats stayed in port, backlog and stop bringing in materials. Grocery stores struggle to maintain inventory as consumers rush to buy food for home consumption. Many of the issues facing our food system and society existed prepandemic. Now, because of the inability to control the spread of the virus they are made worse. Our nations food banks were already under pressure, but are now where millions of unemployed americans turn to feed their families. Sweeping consolidation has led us with far fewer small farms, processes, distributors and retailers. Large multinational corporations have received millions in support while Small Business continued to struggle to survive. Essential farm and food system workers on the front lines, many of whom are immigrants and people of color still lack basic Worker Protections just by experiencing higher rates of coronavirus cases. Congress especially members of this committee have worked to secure funds to help americas Small Businesses survive this crisis. The Economic InjuryDisaster Loan Program and Paycheck Protection Program has helped millions of Small Businesses and farmers to stay afloat. Along the way we have tried to improve this program ensuring minority Business Owners and world Business Owners who often do not have relationships with National Banks or being served by the ppp program and in bending the eidl program so that small American Farm businesses could access the program. But more needs to be done and that is why we are here today. Yes, the ppp program greatly assisted 5 million businesses, but there are approximately 30 million Small Businesses in the u. S. And they continue to face an uncertain future. In fact, the sba reports that in may 2020 employment in leisure, hospitality and food service was down 41 compared to may 2019. We are still hearing reports of more and more farmers facing bankruptcy. This pandemic is for the highlighting an economy that was not working for everyone. Prior to the pandemic 40 of americans didnt have 400 in the bank for an emergency, and more than 20 of households experience Food Insecurity. In the past six months as millions of americans are unemployed, amazon, facebook, target, and walmart stock prices are near alltime highs. This is a tale of two economies. One that is working for wall street to main street businesses are left behind. Many Small Businesses across the food system are still in the difficult position of figuring out how to pay rent and survive, while many have shut down forever. As we work to help assist the American People and americas Small Businesses, i look forward to hearing from our panelist today. About how congress can address the ongoing challenges facing our food system and how we can further assist in the recovery here again i want to thank the panelists for joining us here today, and i now yield to the Ranking Member for his opening statement. Thank you, madam chair. Since march our nations way of life has been disrupted due to covid19. Americas food system has been hit particularly hard. Our favorite restaurants were closed, meat options were low at Grocery Stores and many essentials were sold out. Todays hearing will provide much needed context to these experiences because we better understand why we can better prepare for the future. Our nations food system is typically geared to meet commercial demand. Restaurants, buffets in cafeterias, for example. More than retail demand, Grocery Stores. When our food demand flip from eating out to cooking at home businesses along the supply chain had to pivot to survive. Unfortunately the system didnt adjust quickly enough to repackage and distribute fresh produce, milk and beat originally prepared for commercial use. We have found a dramatic changes to our everyday lives. Producers along the Food Supply Chain has quickly adopted new track to Customer Business models. New strategies and services such as Online Retail or local delivery require significant investments of time and money. Recently i had the opportunity to spend some time in waynesville packham in my district to meet with Small Business owners impacted by the covid19 pandemic. One Business Owner the owner of village Family Restaurant spoke with me about how she utilized the Paycheck Protection Program, ppp, to keep her 25 workers employed so she could continue to serve the community, and most importantly those folks who worked for her could continue to support their families. She has quickly adapted our business to accommodate pickup delivery and indoor dining. At this committee we understand the power of our nations innovative spirit. Now the rest of the country can see it firsthand. Investments being made by Small Businesses across the supply chain are creating a more resilient food system for all of us. I want to thank each of our witnesses who will be sharing their experiences and for being part of our national recovery. Madam chair, thanks for holding his hearing and i yield back. Thank you. I would like to take a moment to explain how this hearing will proceed. Each witness will have five minutes to provide a statement and each Committee Member will have five minutes for questions. Please ensure that your microphone is on when you begin speaking and that you return to mute when finished. With that i would like to thank our witnesses for taking time out of their busy schedule to join us. Our first witness is ms. Kimberly gorton, the president and ceo the oh of slade gorton. She is the thirdgeneration of slade gorton, manufacture and primary distributor of fresh and frozen seafood products. Our second witness is mr. Jamie wright, the president of wrights market, a familyowned independent Grocery Store that has been innovative in online and mobile shopping. Our third witness is mr. Rob larew, president of National Farmers union, which represents family farmers and ranchers across the country. Finally, i would like to come over to the Ranking Member to introduce our last witness. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Collin castore is cofounder of seventh century which opened in april 2013 and its sister brewery which opened in november in 2018. He developed a passion for American Craft beer especially ohio crafted beer while working in restaurants and bars across columbus. For the past six years he has served as the president of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association which represents more than 300 craft breweries across the state. I have the pleasure of meeting him during the Brewers Association virtual hill climb in july. I want to thank him for taking time away from his business to be with us here in d. C. Today. Nice to see them and we definitely appreciate it especially being in person, so thank you. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Chapa, thank you all for being here. Now i would like to begin recognizing ms. Gorton for five minutes. [inaudible conversations] ms. Gorton, you might need to unmute. Ms. Gorton is barely having technical difficulties were going to recognize mr. Wright for five minutes is apparently having good morning, chairwoman velazquez, Ranking Member chabot and Committee Members. I am jenrette, the owner of the wrights market an independent Grocery Store located in alabama. Its an honor to share my experiences as a single store food retailer serving on the front lines of the covid19 pandemic. I am testifying on behalf of of the National Grocers association, the trade association representing independent supermarket industry. We are a family owned business that started as a Small Convenience store in 1973 and evolved to 22,000 square foot fullservice Grocery Store, independent grocers like me are deeply rooted in communities we serve. Our mayor has allowed me the opportunity to join you virtually from city hall, a testament to the strong support we receive from our community leaders. To say 2020 has been a challenging year would be an understatement. Since midmarch independent grocers have experienced sustained and historic levels demand for grocery and household products. Weve had to adapt a large volume of customers stocking up weeks worth of food, supplied key product categories like paper, cleaning supplies and shelfstable products. Seven months into the pandemic supply chain continues to cope with major product shortages. After defendant with felt with challenges keep up with demand while working to provide the best environment for customers employees including adapting enhanced cleaning measures and using protective equipment. It hasnt been easy. Id like to sit independent grocers are flying a plane and building it at the same time. I want to pause and say thank you to all of our dedicated employees who know the importance of our work to the community. We call that are supermarket superheroes. Although independence are resilient in overcoming operational challenges, we have seen the competitive Playing Field tilted against us towards our largest competitors in the pandemic in several ways. The first is due to economic discrimination. Inconsistent distribution and apparent shortages of high demand products is not just a symptom of the Current Crisis. Its a direct result of the lack of antitrust enforcement in the dominance of our buyers in the marketplace. Dominant retailers use their size and scale impose on manufacturers and suppliers in a way that disadvantages small independent and it impedes our boats compete. Independent independent grocers havent had access to pricing, promotions and packaging deals that provided to larger firms. Since march the problems of abortion as power buyers use their market power to demand organization the distribution of high demand products. I have lost access to promotional pricing. As i watched my bigbox competitors continue to sell all products unavailable to me. This has made us much less attractive to customers seeking onestop shopping in the pandemic. The effect of buyer power is not only felt by small groceries but it harms consumers to live in rural areas serviced by independents. We need strong enforcement of u. S. Antitrust laws to ensure our ability to compete to the benefit of all americans. The second competitive are limited bill to sell products to step customers online. Pandemic has exerted ecommerce, a trend we saw coming. We lost her Ecommerce Service right at 2016. Were fortunate fortunate to have been selected for the usda snap online purchasing pilot to allow customers to use their benefits online launched in march. Just days before a National Emergency declaration. Unfortunately the technical barriers and cost to participating in a snap online bit difficult for small retailers to also work for an extensive application and testing process. Our story makes only to launch. Meanwhile amazon and walmart have expanded their s. N. A. P. Online program almost nationwide. Independent data quicker approval process less technical barriers and lower implementation costs. A level Playing Field is critical to preserving and independent grocery sector. Appreciate your attention. Thank you for the privilege to testify today. I look forward to your question. Iq, mr. Wright. That we recognize ms. Gorton for five minutes. Ms. Gorton, you need to unmute. Thank you, chairwoman velazquez, Ranking Member chabot, the establishment of the Small Business committee. President and ceo of slade gorton. Please do the opportunity before the committee today to discuss how the supply chain has been impacted by the covid19 pandemic. Slade gorton is a thirdgeneration Family Business based in boston. We are one of americas largest distributors and are proud of her record of supplying how does a nice healthy and safety food kneels overnight use. More than 1. 7 million americans work in the u. S. Industry, have made a film used in the middle of the supply chain. Many for small familyrun Companies Like mine. With out a sufficient would never make it off the dock. We are the vital link they get seafood from ocean to your table. Over twothirds of our industries 160 billion in annual sales come from restaurants and other Food Service Establishments such as University Dining halls, hospital cafeterias and crew ships. This capacity limits in place in many restaurants and the closure of many other Public Meeting venues Seafood Companies all across the supply chain are serious risk of failing. This is other industry in uncharted waters. Weve had to deal with the job loss that go such an unexpected downturn. My company on on the bus over of its business in immediate weeks following the nationwide shutdown. Many struggling companies rushed to free store product and some begin selling directly to consumers. Even with that effort millions of dollars with fresh product that cannot be sold or stored had to be destroyed. When restaurants moved to Curbside Pickup and Delivery Service seafood did not get its fair share. Fish doesnt have travel as wes other meal options. Even with partial reopening of Restaurant Operators are based with increased cost and time of many operating at the low breakeven capacity. It is only through ingenuity, resilience, grit and determination of the Companies Like slade gorton have been able to survive thus far. One of the biggest issues currently affecting the seaFood Supply Chain related to the large unpaid debt owed to distribute for food that restaurants could not sell during the mandated shutdown. Now that Food Service Establishments are open and working to reopen they will need to rely on their suppliers to continue to provide credit so they can restock their kitchens. We are now faced for the credit at some risk or identity what are you many cases decades long customer relationships. My company is chosen to stick by our customers because without them we have the future. We estimate the seaFood Industry has about 2. 2 billion in outstanding bad debt in addition to the estimated 10 billion of bad debt for the larger committee. Is that something that can be absorbed by Small Business. We need help to fix it. While my company was fortunate enough to receive a ppp loan which has helped us rehire furloughed employees and keep them on board thus far, im afraid these funds are not enough to sustain Small Businesses through what is a much longer economic recovery than we imagine early on. If were going to help the economy get back on track we need to help Small Businesses survive this pandemic. Current figures suggest 25 25f all restaurants in the United States have closed forever. It is imperative that Congress Pass another stimulus bill to include expanding the scope of expenditures that qualify for forgiveness. Allowing restaurants to use funds to pay off their current debt so they can afford to purchase new food and supplies and rehire staff will go a long way toward preventing additional business failures. Additionally restaurants retailers and are now faced with increased cost of sosa with frequent sanitizing, new employee training regiments, retrofitting processing lines, retail spaces and restaurant dining room spirit and providing tpe for employees. The increased yet necessary operational costs are prohibitive as we struggle to adapt. I urge congress to consider a federal grant or taxes to pay for these safety measures. Ultimately jumpstarting the economy requires continued support for those businesses who drive 80 of our gdp. Small businesses. The one that helps ensure every american has access to its healthy as a stable proteins. We need our government to recognize Seafood Community as a broad and diverse system we are. I employee to act now in support a Small Business, and our industries restaurants. Food is a foundation of is at the center of happiness come Human Connection and a vibrant nation. Our families have that your family for generations. Our families now need you. Thank you for allowing me to discuss the impact of covid19. [inaudible] thank you, ms. Gorton. Now we recognize mr. Larew. For five minutes. Good morning. Thank you, chairwoman velazquez, Ranking Member chabot, and members of the committee. And thank you for the opportunity to speak today as mentioned i am rob larew and they serve as president of the National Farmers union. We work to ensure that farm families and their community is are respected, valued, digit Economic Prosperity and social justice. Thank you for adjusting the challenges that farmers in the food system face during this time of crisis in Public Health, in the economy and in our society. In recent they get our members have been hard hit by corporate consolidation among companies who sell instruments to farmers and from companies who purchase what farmers produce. This mounting market concentration has been compounded by low crop prices, a global trade war, and increasingly frequent Severe Weather events. Since 2012 annual net returns for farmers had trended downward for major roadblocks due to rising production costs and declining prices for commodities as the pandemic took hold consumer demand shifted dramatically with the closure of restaurants, schools and other institutions. Processing facilities particularly in the meat sector were shut down due to outbreaks among workers. At least 370 meatpacking plants, or onethird of the national total, experienced covid19 outbreak as of last week. There were nearly 43,000 cases in the meatpacking sector alone. Supply chains were interrupted and many farmers suffered financial struggles while the price of food for consumers increased the u. S. Department of agriculture showed a 6 decrease from april through july 2020 as compared to the same time in 2019. Farmers losses have not been passed on to consumers who instead are paying more for food. So far in 2020 the Consumer Price price index for food is 3 higher than 2019. As supply chains adjusted in new consumer demand, processing facilities have larger reopen, problems linger for the farm and food system. The price of corn has been severely affected by falling demand for ethanol as for the of corn grown in the u. S. Issues for biofuel production. Stay at home or to skip road and fuel consumption dropped sharply. Costing the ethanol industry 10 billion in sales sales. To make matters worse epa brought about a small refinery exemptions and an unwillingness to permit higher blends of ethanol have further eroded corn prices. While the disruption caused unprecedented, many of the problems we face are nothing new. The pandemic revealed the fragility underneath our food and farm system as far as we optimist and urge policymakers to apply Lessons Learned this year to address the longterm issues. In order to be more resilient we need to build a robust, regional food infrastructure. A good start would be sober antitrust enforcement from federal agencies like the state Department Justice come federal trade commission and the u. S. Department of agriculture. Farmers and ranchers need more choices for marketing their crops and livestock prejudices we need to stir development in small and midsize processing plants. In the Meat Industry and a port in that direction to be the ramp up act which is included in the recently revised heroes act. Earlier this year this committee helped farm businesses gain a lingering barrier to access ppp is the requirement to show positive net income because more than half of forms of negative income in recent years. The paycheck protection for producers act would allow farmers with net negative income in 2019 to qualify for the Program Using gross income instead. Lastly, pandemic aid efforts have helped farmers withstand the Current Crisis but future efforts should focus on policy changes to address the causes rather than simply the symptoms of a broken farm economy. One way to do this is through a Cost Effective supply measured system for farm commodities that would browse production with consumer demand. Thanks for this opportunity to address the committee and i welcome your questions. Thank you, mr. Larew. Now we recognize Collin Castore for five minutes. Chairwoman velazquez, Ranking Member chabot and members of the committee thank you for your statements to begin with and thank you for ask me her to testify today. My name is Collin Castore and im founder of seventh Son Brewing Company located in columbus, ohio. I also served as board president of the ohio as Brewers Association represented 35151 breweries in the buckeye state. We have been producing pair since 2013. In the past seven years ive hae watched our business grow to two locations around 5 million in sales and around 70 employees. Ive always been proud of the fact that for every new job grade in. There are 24 jobs gendering and industries that help us to brew and seller be. Unfortunately this goes both ways. According to recent report by the Economic Firm john donne and associate at 651,000 jobs supported by the u. S. Beer industry would be lost by the end of the year due to covid19. Prior to the coronavirus changing our world seventh son brewing sold our brew through tap rooms, brewers and restaurants threat. Summer is a busy time for most breweries and in ohio we are limited to around 40 of our normal capacity and it had a 10 p. M. Curfew imposed may on alcohol sales. Some states have guidelines that it made it impossible to operate on premise tasting rooms and many would welcome federal guidance and consistency to help with these issues. The majority of breweries in the United States make a majority of the revenue from tap rooms and tasting room sales. Estimates by the Brewers Association suggest small brewers have seen on premise Sales Revenues go down 30 since march. Most breweries get their wholesale revenue from on premise sales or restaurants, bars and concert venues which a been severely restricted over the past six months. These outlets sold nearly 20 of the total u. S. Beer volume annually. Their closure has resulted in an estimated 900 million worth of beer that will need to be destroyed. Data from september shows draft sales still about onethird lower than last year. At seventh son river own canning line and some existing relationships that help us to absorb most of this on premise volume loss. On march 16 we get Home Delivery business and carry out sales model out of our shuttered tap rooms. These measures were a lifeline but our head is very much still about 100 we can put 5 billion expansion in 2018 and a wonderful facilities but also the debt to go with it. When we so i can appear we get five dollars less than when we sell that same can appear out of our tap room. We built our expansion for future growth. The top revenue is essential to support it. Im sure youve seen headlines referencing increased our call sales. Those increases must be offset against a massive decline in sales on premise general fick the size of the overall times that shifted even as the individual slice it appears different or even with those increases that weve seen and off premise the brewing industry is expected to lose 22 billion in 2020. The increased demand for cans and outside of our industry has caused aluminum can shortage in the u. S. Another issue with sintering the pandemic that many ethanol plants that captured commercial co2 were taken offline. The production partially is wrapped back of our industry still see signs that shortage caused by natural disasters and unexpected closures. For our industry to survive breweries need certainty and we need financial assistance. Please pass the bipartisan crap beverage modernization tax reform at and make the current federal excise tax rates permanent. If the current tax rates expire by federal excise tax rates will go up 100 starting in january. This would cause me 25,000 which essentially costs me an employee. We appreciate congress is swift action at the beginning of the pandemic with the cares act that result in thousands of breweries receiving money from the payroll protection program. I would likely not be if it had not been for the 359,000 we received. The program wasnt perfect. We can ensure its success by forgiving all of the ppp loans of less than 150,000 to Small Business adding additional funds to the program and allowing businesses that can show revenue losses to apply for another loan. Give us the ability to write off the fines that we use as business expenses and allow 501 c 6 like the Ohio Craft Brewers Association the ability to apply for ppp loans. Our guild has helped us more than double the number of breweries in the past lakers help integrate more than 21,000 jobs. In conclusion, i feel strongly that seventh son needs another round ppp to survive the impacts of covid19 but please also consider passing the restaurant act and restart act both of which would provide small brewers with grant grants rathn debt and allow us more flexibility in how we use those funds. We encourage congress to consider credit for an merchantable goods that have to be destroyed due to supply chain interruptions caused by the virus. For the past decade the tragic Brewing Association has been a Success Story in American Manufacturing and job creation. We need your help to whether this pandemic and continue to grow and thrive. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, mr. Castore. And we appreciate all you had shared with us. Let me begin by recognizing itself for five minutes and i would like to start off with my first question to mr. Wright. The senses just reported that one in ten adults do not have enough food to eat, and 27 of households with children are food insecure. As we strive to ensure that hungry people have access to food during this pandemic, why are there so few small retailers approved by the administration for online s. N. A. P. Purchases . We appreciate the opportunity to be included in that pilot. I think the art several things that make that the challenge for retailers. Certainly one is a technical aspect of not getting that to be able to get set up, their costs with processing part of that. Overall assistance that are needed from retailers understand the program. We have already experienced our launch and we launched when week before the pandemic started. Recognized in our lunch already that there is an educational process we need to go through to be able customers of how to use we would advocate for the s. N. A. P. Online options [inaudible] retailers expand on what options and her own very what we would have is the ability to deliver to rural areas around so i technical process to work through. We were very fortunate to have mr. Wright, time is running out and i need to ask all the questions. Thank you so much for your answer. Mr. Larew, i recently introduced the mobilizing restaurants in america act so that s. N. A. P. Recipients and gain access to food and also supporting struggling restaurants. How important is updating and funding s. N. A. P. And other nutrition programs like the program to farmers, farm workers and Small Businesses across Rural America . Its absolutely essential and we appreciate your leadership in this area. S. N. A. P. Remains the most efficient way to address Food Insecurity out there. So as we look at ways to further bring resilience in that delivery, we certainly have seen about pickups with the pandemic. Ways to pivot if you will to make sure that s. N. A. P. And ultimately food quality, food is available from farmers and connect that to consumers including those in Food Security. It is vital and all the programs along with that, and usda programs to connect farmers to those consumers, all of those issues are critically important. Thank you. Ms. Gorton, restaurant and small firms across the supply chain are continuing to struggle, and that has resulted in issues for Food Processors and distributors. Tpp assisted many in your industry, including yourself ppp. What other steps do you recommend that congress take, and the Small Business administration so that we could address the challenges that you are still facing . [inaudible] ms. Gorton, you need to unmute yourself. Thank you, chairwoman. I think there are several things that we would ask respectfully that Congress First and foremost that usda must allow [inaudible] thus far cepheid is not included in all the programs. Protein, healthy we need to be included in [inaudible] i think also [inaudible] the new bill ms. Gorton, we are having difficulty in listening, hearing what you are saying. I would appreciate the maybe you could submit an answer to the committee on that question. Certainly. Thank you. Mr. Larew, mr. Wright, since the outbreak of the pandemic stores around the country have trouble to stay stocked with demand products. What role has increased consolidation in market control play in your ability to source and sell products . We had seen an increase in the larger players being able to access products that we are not able to get, especially some of the key products such as comfort food items such as pasta and rice and beans and some of those things, paper products, cleaning supplies, all those things been very difficult for us to sort from the larger retailers. I could walk in the stores and see the products on the shelf. I am not able to source. And do you feel that there is any role or impact that corporate consolidation and market control has to do with that . Yes, maam. Again, the consolidation continues on the retail side, continue to see larger the box cutters have more and more power and they put pressure on all the manufacturers that they will get product to the point of actually penalizing the suppliers if you do not get them and begin thats taken from small retailers. Thank you. By time has expired and i would recognize the Ranking Member, mr. Shepherd. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Castore, i will begin with you. You had mentioned that its much more profitable in the taproom and which is so. You make per unit a lot more than obviously. And then you mentioned the 10 p. M. Curfew that we have in a while the check you cut off at 10 p. M. , has had a pretty dramatic impact on your sales. My district is at the bottom of the stick your columbus, in cincinnati so we have kentucky right across the ohio river there, and so the 10 00, what weve heard has been on the news, written about, i know businesses, they tediously ohio, go over to kentucky and take their business over there. How have you been affected at columbus on the 10 p. M. Curfew and you have any recommendations on that perhaps . Not that we can do that here but the states obviously make that on a statebystate basis that determination. Sure. My own experience with the curfew, its definitely hurting our sales, definitely not helping our sales. We dont have kentucky across the river but we do have Ohio State University and where relatively large city, a million half so were seeing people up to ten give ethical to house parties, gatherings where they might not be socially distance, where as at responsible restaurants and bars across cloud we are actually practicing social distancing, passing out mask, doing all these things. Ironically feel i people a lot safer going out sometimes than going to does like private gatherings. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Ms. Gorton, im going to go to you next. Although i think you and i purchased our wifi at the same place because when im at home doing these things ive had that breaking up a lot apparently but im going to try it. You mentioned, you indicated you lost over 70 of your business in the weeks following a nationwide shutdown. How did you adjust your Business Operations to try to survive during that time . Thank you. Hopefully you can hear me now. So as with any businesses the first week really is about survival and slowing down the flow of goods. As for other companies where to freeze some of our fresh products. We had to put product into cold storage. Now back up [inaudible] reworked with our customers to make sure that we could continue to still operational. We work very close with the suppliers to and first and foremost our primary focus was keeping employees steady and that required and are plants making to implement additional invested in new technology. We have invested in a tremendous amount of ppe and in make sure our workers are safe. We can continue to process seafood, very fortunate and we that no disruption in our own systems during [inaudible] i do understand though that a number of the seaFood Processors disruption in their business. I think particularly some of the processes and alaska who rely on tremendous amount of Seasonal Workers were and put them up in hotels prior to thank you. Im going to try to get one more question in in my time. Ive got a little over a minute to go, so mr. Wright abaco to you next. How have you adjusted i will go to do next. How have you adjusted inventory of the computer to do with the coronavirus restrictions . Has that changed over time . How have you handled that you try to stay maybe not profitable but to survive . From the supplyside we have just had to expand on the items that we could source and our suppliers have to look for sources. Traditionally would not be buying product from your we actually with all the toilet paper shortages were ended up sourcing to what a paper from a factory in mexico to be able to have some product to sell. A lot of the brands major selling items we can get back to the large power buyers. If theres a fresh meat, the one that really was critical to us come such a large portion of her visit but he and thats evident consolidation in the industry and the challenges that were made on our side when the pandemic and some of those places close. Thank you so much. I yield back. The gentleman yields back and i would recognize a gentlelady from iowa, ms. Think an hour, chairwoman of the subcommittee of rolypoly, agriculture, trade and entrepreneurship. Thank you, madam chair and thank you for holding this hearing today. Obviously this is a huge issue were still dealing with in the middle of this pandemic and that something that hits close to my district in particular. So my question is to mr. Larew. So in iowa workers in my state and in my district lost their life as result of covid19s outbreak in large Meat Processing plants. Not only obvious he was this for the communities and families, where these processors are among the biggest employers, we created disaster consequences for our Food Supply Chain especially for our livestock and poultry producers. Ive recently cosponsored the ramp up act which would obviously create more competition into the processing sector. So how do you think and can you expand upon this these types of investments in our small plants could help us prevent some of the issues we saw with worker safety and then the population in iowa . Yeah absolutely and its an important issue you bring up because really what were talking about here is taking ourselves from what is a a very concentrated arguably a very efficient system, but one that really has no resilience that is built into it. The ramp up act that we have mention is an important step in shifting ourselves a very concentrated marketplace to one that is much more local and regionalbased, building in more systems for options for producers to help take a lot of the stress out. It also would ensure a much more focused on worker safety and support. So again taking ourselves away from a very efficient driven system that is so concentrated and do so many workers allinone into something that is, creates much more opportunity for Rural Communities i think is huge step forward. Great. I obviously agree but i want to also touch even further here on the issue of competition. Ive heard a real issues with Price Transparency from our cattleman and also helped introduce legislation to require packers to buy at least half their slaughter on the stock market, high prices of the and what weve seen during this pandemic, at least in the Grocery Stores that doesnt always come back to our producers. How could more transparency help our cattleman and make our supply chain more resilient . You touched on another key piece of this. Not only do have huge concentration, we have four the companies controlling over 80 of the market beef companies. Were just 50 meat plans out there that manage 98 of the processing. Its incredible concentration, but the of the peace of this is we dont have a true cash market price out there so four Small Business owners, these independent family farmers and ranchers, they have no way to truly understand what the market is. You are a slew of lawsuits going on now related to price manipulation in the Meat Industry and i think this is another key component of that. So measure such as one you referenced and our members are advocating for up on capitol hill would be an important piece of reestablishing a true operating market and certainly a key piece of that is price discovery. Someone for mission will be better. Thank you, mr. Larew, and i know obviously these issues have always been important, right . But now going to this pandemic and i seen this method many different issues whether it access to broadband in need for that, going to a pandemic, these issues are really heightened and underscored in a number of ways. These are just things we got to get right and weve got to get right past it goes especially when it comes to our supply chain when it comes to making sure Rural Communities we just cannot take for granted. Really grateful for your thank you for your testimony today. Thank you. Without i yield back, madam chair. The gentlelady yields back, and that we recognize Ranking Member of the subcommittee on innovation and Workforce Development for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Castore, thank you for being here. I represent central ohio so its great to see you here and i know yourselves become so thank you. In your testimony he mentioned three major efforts cognates to undertake in order to help Small Business brewers such as yourself. These three issues the passage of h. R. 1175, draft beverage modernization and tax reform act, specific adjustments to ppp and other sba loan programs, and a tax credit for perishable goods that had to be destroyed due to supply chain disruptions. As a cosponsor of h. R. 1175 the craft average modernization and taxable act im hopeful we can pass this bill and provide you with this tax relief. I would like to ask about your comment about a tax credit of perishable goods. How did your business account for the loss of perishable goods prior to covid . Thank you. Prior to covid we did not have a lot of loss from perishable goods. We made a lot of different styles of beer every now and again, something would work quite right. Still a commodity, its a perishable good in general but we didnt run into a kind of volume and the kind of circumstance that precipitated just having to immediately cut off sales. And then we and our kids were able to repackage some of cans but we still dont hear. Ive never seen anything like it. Its not just as per its restaurants dumping beer. Its its wholesalers of dumping beer. Its the actual worries dumping beer. But this is a good. When people miss treat beer and put in the car something can think of it like no, it acts s an expiration date. It goes bad and a lot of beer went bad. I agree. I talked to couple friends of might and my home county that also do the same thing and talked about that. I would like to ask about your comment about a tax credit. How would this tax credit differ from existing practice . I would probably not be the best person to comment on the mechanics of it, but it seems more like this was a onetime circumstance. This was a onceinalifetime kind of experience we have been through so some type of tax credit, some type of structure, not a permanent structure like the Craft Beverage modernization. We would like that to be prolific in terms of practice we would like this to be a onetime help us out with what we had to dump. Thank you very much and again thank you for being here today. My next question is for mr. Right. I would be interested to hear your perspective on this matter how did your independent Grocery Store account for food loss prior to the virus . After the virus we worked very hard every day to control the amount of shrink in waste we have. Anything we have that we can donate to food banks, such as that we do those things. So we just try to manage the supply chain very well and make sure we offer precious product and do not have a tremendous amount of loss and we end up having to pass on to pricing somewhere. Thank you. Would you be able to quantify the financial cost your business had to incur because of distraction to the Food Supply Chain . For us it was a lack of overtime is certainly business wrapped up with a tremendous amount of overtime for employees. We did some additional bonuses, investments that we made in plexiglas the fighters at registers, ppe ppe equipment al those things. Also for us it was a loss of margin in a lot of places as we tried our very best not to raise prices, and this goes back to the situation with meat. We held our prices down as low as he possibly could to cover our costs, and be able to try to give the customer the best price we could even though things had went up. We made very, very little margin on some of those items. We had loss of margin, increased expense in operating the store, and investments also in the equipment to be up to five safe shopping environment. Thank you. I will try to get this in. I may run out of time so i will cut you off. I introduce legislation to provide Small Business with up to 25,000 in tax credits to purchase a replacement of tpe. How significantly with this help your business, and im sorry but we are out of time. To follow up with you on that. I yield back. The gentlemans time has expired. The gentlelady ms. Davis is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman, and thank you to you and Ranking Member chabot for holding this hearing today and im really glad were focusing on the massive impact with seen from the pandemic, the devastating impact really on our food system and especially on a restaurants here one of the things i get to do as the Third District purposes is talk of kansas in the kansas city metro area for folks who dont know, you cant talk about our case the region without talking about barbecue. And this is everything from joes casey to jones barbecue and so many others that are really not just part of the culture of the place but she which economic drivers and their often Small Businesses. For the Restaurant Industry and right now we are seeing raging impacts. I wanted to ask you first if you could in your testimony you mentioned the situation you are facing as a supplier as your customers try to reopen and need additional credit. Could you talk about that position you are in and your customers are in and how you have been addressing it . I will try to speak on my phone. We are having a bad storm in boston that is affecting us. It is just a matter of we had to extend credit terms and the way we forced with our customers is as they ramped back up they are paying us for product they are buying now and what we are working with them on with payment plans for them to help pay us back for the product they purchased prior to the shutdown. In some cases that is working well. In other cases it is not. I think of congress is not able to pass more relief, stimulus for restaurants in particular, the original ppp funds rollout we will see more failures which will have a domino effect on the Food Industry and the seaFood Industry. 70 of seafood is consumed outside the home. If restaurants fail we as an industry have a disproportionate effect to other industries. You started to get into legislation that we passed. What are your thoughts how we as legislators can ensure the supply chains supporting restaurants also support during that time . I think the legislature and the suppliers. One of the key things you could do is to ensure that the ppp fund that are available can be used for covering bad debt that would go a long way towards helping in the supply chain, the funds are primarily used keep people employed and pay utilities but our Biggest Challenges come from the risk of bad debt. If the ppp funds can be extended to include restaurants ability to use those funds to pay off their bad debt that could help Companies Like mine immeasurably. Thank you and thanks for taking the time to testify. I was hoping to switch gears quickly. Mister wright and mister leroux, you have ideas about Food Assistance programs during this time. I am sure after seeing everything happen. In my case just continuing to have a strong snap program is the key to that. Also for independents to offer home line snap and the assets are customers that go to the store during the pandemic, a strong snap program and the ability to go online for everyone, amazon and walmart are able to do that and another operator in new york, new jersey. We appreciate the ability to do that. I would echo those thoughts. From the farmer perspective thank you for your time. I yield back. The gentleman from oklahoma, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, recognized. Thank you, thank our witnesses for testifying. I have been a sponsor in the Restaurant Industry for 35 years. Build Extensive Knowledge of supply chain, i learned that restaurants rely heavily on their supply chain operations for success, extremely dependent on the health of sellers and food supply. As our witnesses have duly noted in their written testimony covid19 has taken severe toll on each of these services. Even with the sba Government Assistance Program farmers and food suppliers still facing excess supply issues where many perishable products are going away. My colleagues often hear me discuss my business experiences, what many may not know is one of my first ventures was a Successful Operation and worked on numerous pulled free farms for tyson foods. The background in numerous aspects of the supply chain raging from the farm to the storefront i contested the obstacles. Dumping out of produce, and when farmers, and Small Businesses struggle this burdens impact on the American Consumer might run into issues accessing the food supply and certainly have impact on pricing. Congress must assure the appropriate actions to impact the food and supply system during this unprecedented time. Congress worked swiftly to pass emergency relief legislation. One of those provisions of this relief expanded Unemployment Insurance giving the ability to draw unemployment and receive additional 600 per week. While wellintentioned this policy will create undue burdens for many businesses teamed essential. Newspapers adjusted for costofliving which caused boys to refrain from working. Some may learn from government benefits then interaction with jobs. You touched on this issue, the written testimony. Could you please elaborate on issues regarding staffing . The first wave of the pandemic we had two weeks that were the largest weeks we ever had across the industry. As we begin to reach out, looking it was a challenge. Some that were essentially stuck. When you reach through additional channels. I agree with your remarks that there wasnt incentive as people make what they were working, costofliving analysis, metric put in. That has changed for us the last few weeks. On saturday, reached out to social media very quickly, so it was a challenge in the beginning, a real struggle on the supply side and all retailers. There has been a lot of talk about lines of credit, grant program, forgiveness of loans. I alluded to it on the floor, an opportunity to vote on hr 8265, for us to put on the floor, 138 billion for the ppp program. You will encourage your congressman or congresswoman to support that, 138 billion, 25 down in sales and go to the end of the year. Would you have your congressman support them . I would like to assist all Small Businesses, we see a dramatic impact in our communities. I will take that as a yes. I would like to get to miss gordon. We are having a bad storm. I dont have time. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania, mister evans recognized for 5 minutes. Thank you, madam chair. A Good Business in philadelphia similar to yours. It is a seafood supply to wholesale casinos. In the span of a few weeks, leading to unusual it would not be affordable. 2 thirds of fish being consumed outside the home. What do you need from congress . A customer of ours, we needed a few things, within the scope of any relief, agencies, with Food Industry. Despite the fact you have allocated 300 million to the seaFood Industry through noah, when Congress Passed the cares act at the end of march until may, funds are trickling in. We expect to not be able to receive them until the end of the year and finally, the seaFood Industry, establish confirmed deadlines and insist the agency has additional funds that would go a long way towards helping distributors like daniels and sons in my company. I was pleased to see that you mentioned the bill, the chain, the frontline through the pandemic yet many those who stuck in, assisted customers and ran the floor during the pandemic and return to them as supermarket superheroes. Anything to award that, the most important part of the economy at this difficult time, it would be a great accent appreciate your leadership on their. Significant portion is Food Security, you mentioned, to make that effect. It is an important issue, being able to connect growers of quality food. Making those connections. Did not have good intentions. To the smaller scale with distributors and farmers, it will be one step. Also recognizing as we stated before, recognizing efficiency and benefit of snap itself, not just this program but also snap and to continue to build these connections, has been an important issue. I yield back and balance my time. The gentleman yields back and we recognize Mister Bishop from north carolina. Something about being so low on seniority, a lot of grounds cover, i would like to focus on one topic and i would like to address a question to you. And a great little family. After he was required by order, he had a dead loss, 75, 000 of perishable goods and you made reference to that and your exchange in your testimony. It is irreplaceable in a lot of cases and once you agree that fixing that, a grant or something is critical, Small Businesses being able to survive. A couple of the witnesses touched on it. Having more flexibility if theres another round of ppp to cover those things, additional grant funds is absolutely critical. Small to mediumsize, so many in ohio are smaller than us that cant cake the 70, 000 loss. He said 138 billion of money already appropriated into the Paycheck Protection Program. Ranking member shabbat has a bill, to allow folks, when you document a significant revenue loss. Sort of like a grant. There is a discharge position, with disagreements on illegal immigration for state and local government, are the American People as mystified as i am when the house leadership wont allow that to go forward. So people make use of that 138 billion of money already appropriated when we had big problems later. It is getting increasingly hard. I cant think of anyone except barring my wife, agree with politics entirely on the world, i am done sounded a lot, the things we do agree on and things we do need to do this falls into the category. Politics is attached to every thing, this is why government is supposed to be here, to reach out and get us through this. We need you guys and it is one of those things the less we can get these other issues conflated and the more we say restaurants need you, lets get something through, we can add to it later. A lot of us wont be around if it takes much longer. Is somebody who is new up here, we have one more opportunity this week before we are gone to fix that one little problem and make an enormous difference in the lives of all the Small Businesses that are struggling to survive and employees who depend on it. I yield back. What would you prefer, Debt Financing or more grounds. I prefer all of the above. In terms of financing works, grants work for some people. We need options. The chaos act on the senate side that includes grants. They made those loans to provide more access that were left behind that have an opportunity to access those in the first and second round the we passed. In amount of fairness not included in the Ranking Members legislation but in a cares act and the heroes act. The new bill we introduced, we recognize the gentleman from illinois, mister snyder, for four minutes. Thank you, madam chairwoman and thank the witnesses for sharing their story. You represent millions of Small Businesses who are struggling in this crisis. The pandemic has affected every aspect of your business and in no small part the impact on our supply chain has been devastating. I think the committee and city staff for allowing us to have this hearing to support this issue. Later the house will be voting on a bipartisan bill, the example of is coming together call the covid19 era. The bill is straightforward, as we face the pandemic and struggled through spring and summer, scraping by, we need to know all aspects of the federal government have a plan for the expected rise in cases that we will face in the fall into winter. It will require each agency to present congress their plans so the American People will have transparency and confidence the governor is working on their path. Witnesses can attest, the supply chain, in particular, a new reality. It has to be and make a square pagan fit into a round hole, to focus on carryout shifting from the delivery model, or the myriad other ways that rely on creativity but Small Businesses and millions of others around the country should not have to be on their own, standing alone and that is what is deeply frustrating about this pandemic, the federal government not stepping up to the challenge to provide necessary guidance, finding a way through to the other side. Small businesses, we just talked about a moment ago, the question of whether it is loans or grants is important. Many are closing their doors and that is why the assistance of the heroes act is so important and the bill introduced this week has come to the floor and ultimately the senate. You need guidance to operate safety in this new environment. Thanks for joining us and thanks for all you do on behalf of the country. One of my colleagues mentioned, i worked on a chicken farm. Understand the complexities of trying to get the products to market on a consistent basis. With meatpacking facilities, certain Food Supply Chains were impacted by covid19 because they would not enact these measures and have severe impact, looking forward, what guidance does the federal government provide usda and other federal agencies that would help Agricultural ProducersMeeting Capacity while incorporating best practices . Thank you and thank you for the question. One of the first things that bears repeating is the need to build more resilience into the system which would be beneficial from the court level through the food chain for farmworkers and food workers who have been severely impacted the building that resilience involves a couple things, trying to remove the level of concentration that is currently there which involves antitrust enforcement and supporting the ability for very small processing plants, to get there inspection to a level they have more markets available. Currently it is cost prohibitive for them to meet a level of that allows them to ship interstate. Supporting measures like the rampup act is one of those pieces. The more we can build resilience by taking the amount of workers we have, i mentioned earlier 50 Meat Processing plants process 98 of the meat in this country. Thats not good for farmers, not good ultimately for the food chain and its resilience and our Food Security so for farmer and consumer point of view it is about building that resilience. I know how hard it is, the employees in your business, these official workers showing up to work every day, so grateful for them, all you doing all they do, thank you and we will work to get the relief necessary to move forward, with that i yield back. The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized for five minutes. I appreciate you being here and appreciate the panel. I see one person up there, mister wright, who doesnt speak with an accent, i sigh he was from alabama so i might just call on him if that is all right. I am from tennessee so we can say that, very similar snicker, they get it pretty quick. How long did it take to obtain your ppe . Took less than four weeks, we are fortunate in the fact of a mediumsized bank with local leadership in it, we held our hand through that so i think it was 3 or 4 weeks at most. You are quoted in your testimony as saying you double the rate of pay for employees early in the pandemic for bonuses and overtime pay as the pandemic war on. Your employees went to prepandemic wages . What we did on that is pay extra week of pay in the first month, the second month. Over to a percentage pay. Everyone returned to the same level of pay. 600 per pay affected your stores workforce . Early on, we were fortunate to find college leaders, it has improved now, reaching out. Can you walk there a farmers decision in the supply shane shocked. It is a massive question which can vary greatly. Might just reference the reason is pretty obvious, if youre a hot producer and you are raising a set of animals they are being time to be ready for markets, as those challenges happen, that is where you saw plants being shut down, forcing producers to make difficult choices to medicate those, with his independent ranchers, trying to determine what the market truly is, they also struggle with plant closures. For them they can put animals on feed or pasture a little longer. Out of condition, ultimate prices are much lower and costs are higher. If you are storing grain, the grain markets too much across the board have been severely low for many years. For all the farmers who have been operating on low margins these disruptions on the supply chains have been devastating and compounded the economic challenges they already had. In tennessee the meat processors, used to call them slaughterhouses but that is not politically correct, the meat processors, hardtofind one. You have to schedule and a schedule months in advance and it is not a way to do business. Dont know if it is by design or not, the big boys are systematically going to crush the Little People and found also that over half of meat processors it is a scary proposition, very scary. 41 seconds. Mister castor, why does the bird make more money from tech room sales and sales for distributors . First and foremost is the cost of the packaging. The packages we put into, cost as much if not more than the liquid itself. Each hand runs 0. 20, you have the packer on top of it, the hardware case they go into. Delivery drivers, other parts of the supply chain add up the cost to the consumer. Handing a can of beer. Run out of time. For the record i want you to know i had more beer spilled on me that i ever drank and i need to say that. You know the difference between a baptist and a methodist, dont you . A baptist doesnt do to in the liquor store. The gentlemans time is expired and the gentle lady from minnesota is recognized for five minutes. Thank you so much. I want to say thank you to you and the Ranking Member for holding this incredibly important hearing. As mentioned in various testimony the reason for the dominant effect on the food system is down to the tightly bound Food Supply Chain which is incredibly reliant on each step with little room for error. November, the house bag committee, i have seen firsthand during this pandemic how the Food Supply Chain from farmers to meet processes to Grocery Stores, fisheries, restaurants have been greatly affected by this pandemic, the congressional supply chain caucus. Ive been working with leaders back in my district and here in dc, more about this domino effect. One industry that is a piece of the Food Supply Chain, with local independent restaurants, the independent Restaurant Industry continues to suffer as more are forced to close their doors, in places like minnesota, to stay afloat when they use the outdoor seating. It is impossible to sit outdoors in the winter. Two questions related to that, it is great to see you, mister leroux. I will get my questions out of the way. You spoke about the troubled restaurant in your testimony. And it contains 120 billion, the Overall Health of the Food Supply Chain. The second, programs connect. They connect with local schools and restaurants. And the rampup act. For Farm Products and restaurants and diversifying Food Supply Chain. To address the allowing more flexibility. To forgive the cost of supply chain. And if we help restaurants. It is to unstick product, to allow suppliers to the constituents and restaurants to its credit. I might say, the independent restaurants are absolutely hurting. One of the things that is overlooked in this current bill our franchise restaurants. There is a misperception the name on the outside of the restaurant associated with the chain means there is money flowing, many of the small franchisees are just like independent operators, they too are suffering from the same problems created by the pandemic, that smaller independent restaurants. I encourage congress to include franchisees that are provided. Thank you so much. Mister leroux. To try those connections, family farmers out there in the restaurant, the Program Congress included in the recent farm bill that is hopeful, to do that. And dance build connections, ties in with farmers markets, for the commercial food program. And to reinforce the access to these programs, long flexibility in their resiliency. Thank you, madam chairwoman it appears i am out of time, yield back. The gentle lady yields back and thank you to all witnesses for their testimony and offering views on challenges facing americas food system and americas Small Businesses need to recover from this unprecedented crisis. By sharing your experiences we will be able to assist all Small Businesses in a difficult road ahead. We must find other ways to assist our country with businesses from restaurants and Grocery Stores, farms and process food so they and their workers continue to ensure the rest of us can have access to food, a farmers market, members have 5 legislative days to submit statements, supporting materials for the record. Without objection so ordered and if there is no further business before this committee we are adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the senate is getting ready to gavel into start the day to extend government funding through december 11th. Current funding runs out at 11 00 eastern. They are considering Donald TrumpsSupreme Court nominee amy barrett who met with a number of them and this is what it looked like. We are pleased to welcome judge barrett in the senate