Update July 13: South Dakota Searchlight reports on the South Dakota share of the funding in Newell butcher gets $5.7 million in latest round of USDA small business grants' End update
At the Iowa Capital Dispatch, Jared Strong reports in Feds announce new funding to expand meat processing:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently pledged about $110 million to smaller and independent meat processors — including five in Iowa — to expand their capacities in an effort to increase competition in the industry and to give farmers more options.
The federal grants announced on Thursday range in value from about $123,000 for a small custom meat shop in Washington state to $10 million for an expansion of a new producer-owned beef plant in Texas that plans to employ 1,500 people.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the grant awards to more than 50 meat and poultry processors are meant to help alleviate the industry’s consolidation over decades that has, at times, decreased profits for farmers and increased prices for consumers.
“When you have basically 85% of the processing capacity for meat and poultry in the hands of four companies, and you have areas of the country where farmers are given one place to market, and only one place, and they have to take the price … I think it is important and necessary for us to continue to make the investments that we’re announcing today,” Vilsack said in a press call with reporters. ...
Read the entire article online at the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
On the X platform, Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Petersen posted:
Congrats to MN Farmers Union Foundation & Clean Chickens LLC that is building a goat & sheep processing facility in Willmar. USDA awards $110 million to expand independent meat processing https://t.co/K5zsRHiCWr via @SuccessfulFarm
— Thom Petersen (@ThommyPetersen) July 12, 2024
Details on those Minnesota grants:
Clean Chickens and Co. LLC $1,026,730
Clean Chickens and Co. operates a USDA-inspected mobile poultry processing unit specializing in both chicken and turkey processing. Using both MPPEP - Phase 2 and private financing, they will construct a brick-and mortar facility focused on lamb and goat processing that will serve halal markets and help local producers access value-added markets. The project will lead to the creation of 18 new jobs while helping train a new generation of butchers in both poultry and red meat processing.
Farmers Union Foundation $603,582
The Minnesota Farmers Union Foundation, a nonprofit established to advance the educational and cooperative mission of its family farmer members, will invest MPPEP - Phase 2 funding to develop a modular red meat processing facility in north-central Minnesota. The new facility is expected to employ 15 full-time staff while also providing training to and apprenticeships in collaboration with Central Lakes College's meat cutting program. The new facility will join an ecosystem of other businesses owned by Farmers Union Industries, including rendering plants in southern Minnesota and a restaurant in Minneapolis.
Learn more about Clean Chickens and Co at its website.
At the Star Tribune Christopher Vondracek reports in Federal funds help launch halal goat meat slaughterhouse in central Minnesota:
Clean Chickens started with a mobile poultry-processing unit, one of the only in the country. The owners of that business will next establish another facility to meet a growing need in the state: a halal meat processor for those who follow Islam.
For years, Greg Wierschke built up the nation's only mobile, federally approved poultry slaughter unit in the country, processing birds across rural Minnesota.
Now with a $1 million infusion, he's establishing a halal goat meat slaughterhouse in Willmar, Minn.
"We've learned there is a need for goat processing, especially halal [in Minnesota]," said Wierschke, who runs Elk River-based Clean Chickens and Co. with his wife, Rebecca.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday awarded him a $1,026,730 grant, which will provide 30% of the funds toward establishing a brick-and-mortar halal processing center in Willmar.
Wierschke said some Minnesotans assumed new immigrants to the U.S., including Islamic populations following a halal diet, might quickly lose those dietary restrictions. He said the opposite has been true, as there's growing demand for fresh halal goat and lamb meat.
"Minnesota has a legacy of welcoming immigrants and taking in refugees," Wierschke said. "We have a culture that has values, and they're going to stay here with these values,"
It's also meant a business opportunity. He estimates the new operation will produce 18 new jobs, and using a nearby rail line, the meat could be available around the country. . . .
The Minnesota Farmers Union Bottleneck Project's website also shares a wealth of information about its program, which brings together meat cutting educators, financial advisors, existing meat cutting businesses and those wishing to enter this business world.
At the Minnesota Reformer, project member Paul Sobocinski described the project in 2022 commentary, Where’s the meat? Solving a bottleneck in the meat supply chain vital to farmers’ profitability:
COVID-19 brought a lot of hard lessons, one of which is that it’s not a good bet to put all of our meat processing needs into the hands of just a few large processing plants. When COVID infections soared, many large processors in our region had to shut down for a few weeks or more, disrupting the meat market and supply across our country.
Many livestock farmers who raise beef, pork, etc. — along with the small grains and pastures that feed them — can earn very reliable profits from directly marketing their animals to consumers who value the practices and care given by the farmer toward the animals and land. For this to work, however, we need local locker plants nearby to slaughter and process animals to order.
With the COVID-19 closures of large plants, the lack of local butchers in the meat processing industry was telling. Large livestock producers snapped up available processing opportunities as an alternative to euthanizing their excess animals — to the point where animals were scheduled for butchering up to a year in advance.
My customers, for example, couldn’t get the animals they wished to buy processed, and a number of farmers were left with the limited choice to sell animals into depressed markets providing rock bottom prices.
Despite a ready supply of meat from farmers, the closure of the large plants and the lack of local butchers caused a bottleneck in the supply chain, while demand was growing. The farmers got very low prices for their animals while consumers faced skyrocketing prices and empty shelves. This was a lose/lose situation, and it has the potential to happen again.
As a part of a team of unique researchers working in cooperation with the Minnesota Farmers Union, the University of Minnesota’s Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, the Minnesota Association of Meat Processors, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and others, we decided to look into this “bottleneck” in local meat processing capacity in Minnesota to figure out what the problems were for local butchers, and what could be done to help. We interviewed 57 small to medium-sized lockers in all corners of Minnesota to ask the owners their thoughts.
We learned that there is a severe shortage of trained workers in this industry. The job is physical, requires long hours, and requires a high degree of skill. Not everyone is cut out to be a butcher (no pun intended). Most locker owners were willing and able to teach the finer points of butchery to new employees, especially if the apprentice had basic knowledge and a strong work ethic. However, important business skills necessary to own and manage a business were best learned in more formal training courses.
We also learned that many local lockers close permanently when owners ready to retire can’t find a buyer. Again, that’s a lose/lose scenario for both farmers and for consumers shopping for local foods. Any successful business transitions we examined tended to take place within a family, with an existing employee, or with skilled outside assistance from local development authorities.
Our team partnered with the Latino Economic Development Center to interview Latinos and other immigrant workers already working in Minnesota’s larger slaughter plants. We found many yearned to expand their opportunities by managing or owning their own locker plant. They faced additional obstacles, however, like language barriers or credit history issues, which prevented them from pursuing their dreams — dreams that would help to solve the shortage of workers and buyers of Minnesota’s local lockers.
We have published a 38-page report full of data, stories and recommendations to support and expand the local meat processing industry. The report is available on the U of M’s Minnesota Institute of Sustainable Agriculture’s website, here.
We are committed to working with many partners to bring our recommendations into reality: Apprenticeships for willing workers; programs to overcome the special barriers facing our hard-working immigrant communities; and, advice and assistance for existing locker owners looking to find a buyer as they reach retirement.
As a livestock farmer committed to the highest standard of individual care for my land and animals, I know that if we succeed in addressing the bottleneck in meat processing, farmers that direct market their livestock will thrive by being able to supply the booming demand for local meats through local lockers.
My community, along with many other rural communities, will benefit from a steady food supply that can better withstand the type of disruption that COVID-19 brought to all of us. Sounds like a win/win to me.
The grants are a timely companion to SD Farmers Union President: Expansion of antitrust enforcement in agriculture is a hopeful sign for farmers and ranchers, commentary from the South Dakota Searchlight that Bluestem republished today.
Photo: Dozens of central Minnesotans came together at a workshop in Willmar to learn and share about the possibility of local meat processing businesses. Learn more about the event in Supporting meat processors at the Marshall Independent. Photo via Minnesota Farmers Union.
The Minnesota Reformer column by Sobocinski is republished in its entirety under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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