USDA will grant $55.2 million in competitive grants through a new program meant to help small and medium-sized meat processors increase their capacity.

Through the Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant program, “meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities can cover the costs for necessary improvements to achieve a federal grant of inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Act, or to operate under a state’s cooperative interstate shipment program,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The program has two components:

The “Planning for a Federal Grant of Inspection” project is for processing facilities currently in operation and working toward federal inspection. Applicants can be located anywhere in the states and territories.
The “Cooperative Interstate Shipment Compliance” project is for facilities in states with a Food Safety and Inspection Service cooperative interstate shipment program.

Eligible meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities include commercial businesses, cooperatives and tribal enterprises.

Among other things, USDA encourages grant applications that focus on improving meat and poultry slaughter and processing capacity and efficiency, building a larger commercial presence, and increasing access to slaughter or processing facilities for small farms and socially disadvantaged producers.

More information is available from USDA.

$55 million USDA grant program aims to help small processors