The initial round of Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grants (MPIRG) initiated in 2021 was among the first resources offered under the Biden Administration’s ambitious commitment to support smaller meat and poultry processors.
These grants were designed to help smaller processors upgrade their facilities and obtain a USDA Grant of Inspection through the Food Safety and Inspection Service or through the Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program.
Mema’s Meat Market
The activities funded through the first round of MPIRG are scheduled to be completed by the end of September. With that in mind, Regional Directors Chris Roper and Dave Carter have been visiting several processors who received those initial grants. Between the two of them, they have seen more than 45 processors from New York to Oregon since March.
These visits were overwhelmingly heartening, to say the least.
Critics of USDA’s commitment to smaller meat processors sometimes claim the agency is “throwing money out there” that will hardly make an impact. Chris and Dave have seen example after example of the USDA funding being utilized to leverage significant personal financial commitments from rugged entrepreneurs who are building new businesses to provide processing opportunities for ranchers and locally produced food for their communities.
In Albertville, AL and Berthold, ND, local residents can shop for a variety of fresh meat, along with other locally produced food, at D&S Quality Beef and Mema’s Meat Market. Bad River Enterprises in Chamberlain, SD, is a growing business, producing a full line of high-quality jerky, snack sticks, and other value-added products now available with a USDA inspection stamp. Livestock producers in southern Virginia now have access to an efficient, small, USDA-inspected processing facility at Easternview Farm in Drakes Branch. And the list goes on.
D&S Quality Beef
USDA’s MPRIG grant grants provided reach of these recipients up to $200,000 to help them become USDA inspected. The actual cost is much higher. In each of these enterprises, the recipients invested significant personal financial resources and sweat equity to make it happen.
MPIRG is only one aspect of USDA’s commitment over the past 30 months. Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program Grants (MPPEP), Indigenous Animal Harvesting Grants (IAG), Local Meat Capacity Grants (Local MCap), and the Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program (MPILP) are all providing resources that are making a difference across rural America.
A friend recently asked if the processors supported through USDA’s commitment and our technical assistance program would compete with the Big Four companies. With a couple of exceptions: no. But the businesses emerging and expanding because of this commitment are making big differences in local communities across the country.
That’s just as important, if not more so.