Millions of dollars of funding is now available for local meat and poultry processors to expand their business ventures, providing more opportunities for ranchers to process their own food and for consumers to support local producers.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program provides grants to help processors expand their capacity and through their Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program in North Dakota, four entities in total received nearly $41 million dollars in funding to do just that.
The most recent recipients of this funding were the Oyate Community Development Program for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Rural Development Finance Corporation, and the Farmers Union Foundation.
Once the entities receive the funding, they will be able to loan the money to processors to expand the availability of local meats, while also keeping them affordable.
“There’s been a monopoly in a really crucial business,” explained ND Director for USDA Rural Development, Erin Oban, “and because of the priorities of this Administration and the funding that’s been made available through Congress, Rural Development has been able to really target opportunities to fill gaps and to create that new, stronger, better markets in places like North Dakota.”
Oban says as the loans get paid back, the funds will continue to be re-circulated, to once again support other groups in the meat processing industry.
Source: kxnet.com
Photo Credit: gettyimages-rosshelen
Categories: South Dakota, Livestock