Biden administration distributes grants of 12 million to small companies
2023.01.09 12:44
Biden administration distributes grants of 12 million to small companies
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – As part of a larger $1 billion effort to encourage competition in a highly consolidated industry, the Biden administration announced on Monday that it would award another $12 million in grants to upgrade and expand three meat and poultry processing facilities in the United States Midwest.
The three projects, which received funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, include a grant of nearly $9.6 million to expand International Food Solutions Inc.’s capacity for poultry storage and processing in Ohio; a grant of $1.5 million to improve and enhance turkey processing at Michigan Turkey Producers, a cooperative owned by growers; and a grant of $962,954 to Benson & Turner Foods Inc. for the construction of a cattle and hog processing plant on the Minnesota White Earth Reservation.
In addition to the loans and allotments that the USDA has given out in recent months, the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program, which is funded by the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, has given $74 million to 22 businesses.
After COVID-19 infections among workers in large meat processing facilities slowed production for much of 2020, raising food prices, the Biden administration’s efforts to expand meat processing capacity follow.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated during his speech at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Puerto Rico that each of these projects “will provide additional competition for Farm Bureau members, additional value-added opportunity for producers, and again more jobs in rural communities.”
Biden’s agriculture department has been concerned about market concentration in the meat processing industry. According to the most recent data provided by the USDA, in 2018, approximately 85% of grain-fed cattle in the United States were killed by four businesses.
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President Joe Biden stated that his administration is “here to continue to promote competition” in the sector, including “a $1 billion increase in meat processing capacity” in a recorded message that was played at the convention.
