Five independent processors will receive grants totaling $59 million to expand local meat processing capacity, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Tuesday. The grants are part of a $1 billion initiative by the administration to strengthen the food supply chain and introduce more competition into the meat processing sector.
“For too long, American farmers and ranchers have been asked to produce more to meet increasing demand across the country and around the world, while they and the rural communities they come from have struggled to see their fair share of the benefits,” said Vilsack in Harrisonburg, Virginia. “Through investments like those I’m announcing today, USDA will continue to work tirelessly to give farmers and ranchers a fair chance to compete in the marketplace, which in turn helps lower food costs for the American people.”
Shenendoah Valley Organic LLC said it would use its $3.6 million grant to nearly double the capacity of its poultry processing plant in Harrisonburg to 630,000 birds a week. The expansion would create 300 jobs. Improvements to the plant would include a new wastewater treatment system.
The two largest grants went to Riverbend Meats in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to help build an environmentally friendly beef processing facility that will double its capacity to 600 heard a day, and Prestage Farms of South Carolina LLC to help equip a turkey processing plant. Each company got $25 million.
With Tuesday’s announcement, the USDA has awarded $159 million in grants through its Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program. It awarded $12 million to three MPPEP projects last month and $75 million to 22 projects last November. The USDA says MPPEP is intended to “encourage competition and sustainable growth in the U.S. meat processing sector, and to help improve supply chain resiliency.”
Cattle, hog and poultry processing is highly concentrated, with four companies controlling 85 percent of cattle slaughter and more than half of poultry processing.
Also on Tuesday, the USDA announced $48.6 million in funding for projects that mitigate wildfire risk, improve water quality and restore forest ecosystems through a Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service partnership with farm and forest landowners. “Through collaboration and strategic investments in local communities, we continue to work with the Forest Service to respond to significant conservation needs on private and public lands,” said NRCS chief Terry Cosby.