The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Wednesday announced an additional $21.9 million of funding is being awarded to 111 grant projects through the Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant Program (MPIRG), bringing total funding to $54.6 million. This year's awards will fund projects in 37 states. The funding will help strengthen and develop new market opportunities for meat and poultry processors throughout the United States. To further these efforts, AMS is also encouraging MPIRG awardees and eligible participants in USDA's Meat and Poultry Supply Chain initiatives to request assistance through the Meat and Poultry Processing Capacity Technical Assistance Program (MPPTA). Launched in March 2022, MPPTA connects participants to a nationwide network of resources and expertise.
"The Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grants will help meat and poultry processors make necessary facility improvements, expand their businesses, and strengthen the nation's food supply chain," said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. "These grants are one part of USDA's Meat and Poultry Supply Chain initiatives and will contribute to our efforts to transform our food system."
"USDA continues to build capacity and increase economic opportunity for small and midsized meat and poultry producers across the country," added Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt.
In Minnesota, projects funded this round include:
- Waseca Morgan's Meat Market LLC, Waseca, $200,000. Waseca Morgan's Meat Market LLC is a Beef and pork very small processing plant. As a family-owned business originally started in 2003, they have approximately 10 employees. They offer Custom Exempt Processing services and produce various types of value-added and fresh cut meat products. While their annualized growth rate has been 25% recently, the facility is lacking key modernization necessary to help achieve the USDA status needed to expand any further and comply with FSIS protocols. In this project, Waseca Morgan's Meat Market proposes a modern, high-capacity smokehouse to maintain regular and even temperature during cooking and increase value-added production. They also propose a series of facility improvements to comply with FSIS product separation requirements and utility improvements to handle increases in production and ensure the proper, safe functioning of the smokehouse.
- Neighbor's Meats, LLC, New Richland, $200,000. Neighbor's Meats, LLC is pursuing the Food Safety Inspection Upgrade to enable it to become a federally inspected slaughtering and processed meats retail facility. Becoming a federally inspected facility will assist local producers get the product they generate on the plates of local restaurants and food trucks as well as schools. It will open the door to sharing their quality products to a greater clientele in the region and beyond. This will provide an opportunity for local producers to sell their animals locally, thus lowering the carbon footprint created by shipping them to processing plants many miles away. Becoming a federally inspected facility will provide an additional slaughter facility in the region should a pandemic or similar situation cause major processing facilities to close again.
Facility improvements and expansions funded through MPIRG will help processors obtain a Federal Grant of Inspection or qualify for a state's Cooperative Interstate Shipment program. Achieving a Federal Grant of Inspection or operating under a Cooperative Interstate Shipment program allows meat and poultry processors to ship products across state lines, develop new markets, increase capacity, and better meet consumer and producer demand along the supply chain.
MPIRG recipients and other eligible participants, especially small and underserved stakeholders, in USDA's Meat and Poultry Supply Chain initiatives are encouraged to take advantage of the broad technical assistance offered through MPPTA. AMS has cooperative agreements with six organizations to form the MPPTA network, which has already provided valuable assistance to over 300 businesses and organizations across the U.S. and its territories since its launch earlier this year.
Categories: Minnesota, Livestock, Poultry