IARN — The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association welcomes the USDA’s $215 million commitment to enhance the American food supply chain.
USDA officials Thursday announced the availability of up to $215 million in grants and resources as part of a continued effort to strengthen the meat and poultry processing sector and create a more resilient food supply chain. NCBA vice president of government affairs Ethan Lane tells IARN that an investment in packing capacity is critically important for the cattle industry.
“This is good progress on this billion dollars in processing capacity money that we’ve been talking about for the better part of a year now,” said Lane. “We have a lot of producers and smaller processors that have been looking for opportunities to actually access these funds we’ve talked about for so long. This really gets that ball rolling.”
As part of the announcement, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will allocate $40 million to existing workforce development programs to assist new and expanding processors with recruiting, training, and retraining adequate labor.
“There’s no segment of the economy that’s not wrestling with these labor issues, but certainly we’ve felt it full force in the cattle and beef supply chain since the beginning of the pandemic – and really before that,” said Lane.
Lane says USDA Rural Development will make $150 million available through the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
Photo courtesy of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA)
