sept-oct-2020

ADVOCACY REPORT Advocating for the Almond Community The year 2020 has been unlike any we have ever seen before — and we still have several months to go! The COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of wildfires that have consumed vast amounts of acreage and polluted the air, ongoing global trade challenges, ever changing water supply policies — these issues have definitely grabbed a large amount of attention. And yet, the Almond Alliance, which advocates at the state and federal level on behalf of the entire California almond community, has been making quiet, steady progress on a number of fronts. Here is a quick review of those successes: Coronavirus Food Assistance Program The Almond Alliance fought for almonds to be included in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) which consists of direct payments to almond growers for losses suffered as a result of COVID-19 and disruptions to the supply chain. We have advocated for more funding in the newly announced CFAP 2 to assist with pricing damages. To date our industry has received approximately $100 million dollars. We are proud of our advocacy efforts to have almonds included in this program. We coordinated our efforts with Blue Diamond and worked with the Almond Board of California for outreach and workshops as well as the USDA Farm Service Agency and Agricultural Marketing Service for application technical and webinar support. Section 32 Buy for Almonds The Almond Alliance worked with association members to get funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to buy California almonds. The USDA issued a solicitation to purchase $40 million dollars’ worth of almonds before September 30, 2020 for food 2 4 A L M O N D F A C T S