The White House announced earlier this week that it will allocate $1 billion toward the country’s independent meat and poultry producers in order to help independent farmers compete with more powerful meat producers that the administration says is responsible for surging consumer prices.
As the U.S. faces ongoing concern over inflation, the Biden Administration has criticized large corporations and argued that more competition will drive down prices. With this latest round of funding, the administration is hoping to achieve that level of competitiveness.
The plan is officially called the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain. The plan includes four key pillars of strategy including the $1 billion in resource funds for the expansion of independent processing capacity. This comes following the USDA’s review of more than 400 comments, which found that there is an urgent need to expand and diversify processing capacity, increase producer income, create more jobs in rural regions and more. The funding will go toward specific resources such as $100 million to support the development of a well-trained workforce, safe workplaces and good-paying, quality jobs; $50 million in technical assistance and research development, $100 million in reduced overtime inspection costs, $32 million in grants to 167 processing facilities and more.
