IARN — Iowa Senator Joni Ernst took a facility tour of Quality Food Processors in Denison Thursday afternoon as part of her 99 County Tour for 2021.
Quality Food Processors is a food packing company that is a producer of high-quality bacon products and is a major employer in Crawford County. Along the tour, Ernst observed the company’s bacon production process and how the products are made and packaged.
Ernst said Quality Food Processors and all of Iowa’s meat processing facilities are a critical part of the country’s food supply chain.
“It’s vital that we maintain these facilities and the products that are so commonplace in our homes,” Ernst said. “It starts somewhere, and this is where it starts. Just knowing and understanding our meat production, the life cycle of our hogs coming from our pork producers, and then how it is brought into this facility, processed and then packaged into bacon that folks in our metro areas – you know they don’t have the worries of agriculture, but they do know that they’ve got product on the shelves ready for them any day of the year.”
In her sit-down discussion with QFP management, Ernst was informed about the company’s accomplishments, as well as other important topics and needs for the food packing industry and rural communities.
“As we’re looking at food production and what’s important for the United States, if we have a facility like this that shuts down, that impacts the supply chain and where that distribution goes and who’s able to access it,” Ernst said. “It is really important that we pay attention to Iowa agriculture and the end products that we find in our grocery stores.”
For complete video coverage of this story, visit the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
