National Bison Association– USDA MPPTA Partner Spotlight
U.S. bison producers deeply understand the importance of having access to smaller, more diverse meat processing capacity. After all, every head of the 75,200 bison processed under USDA or state inspection last year passed through a plant classified as small or very small under USDA’s definition.
The National Bison Association, which partnered with Flower Hill Institute earlier this year through a Memorandum of Understanding, has helped guide the growth of the American bison business for nearly 30 years. The 1,200-member bison association serves as the national voice for bison producers, processors, and marketers nationwide.
“The bison industry has staked out a strong position of promoting our products as delicious meat sourced from animals humanely raised in harmony with our natural environment,” said Jim Matheson, executive director of the National Bison Association. “That message has helped us connect with a growing segment of the public wanting to purchase products that align with their values and expectations for quality. Our processors are instrumental in helping us deliver high-quality bison meat to shoppers across the country.”
Dave Carter, who served as Executive Director of the National Bison Association for nearly 21 years before joining Flower Hill Institute as a regional director for the MPPTA program last March, added, “Smaller processors have been vital in the growth of the bison business. When I came to the association in 2001, the bison business was in a meltdown. Ranchers had successfully built their herds, but there wasn’t a perceptible consumer demand for the meat. The National Bison Association and individual processor-marketers worked together to steadily introduce bison meat to the public.”
Among the key elements in the MOU between Flower Hill and the National Bison Association are a commitment to identify bison ranchers and farmers who could utilize meat and poultry processing technical assistance and to aid those producers in submitting USDA funding applications for that assistance and to connect individuals and groups engaged in developing new bison meat processing enterprises with information and resources to increase their success and sustainability.
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Please note: The Meat and Poultry Processing Technical Assistance (MPPTA) Program is funded through a cooperative agreement with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. The MPPTA Project Coordinators do not offer or provide direct contractor services or financial capital, grant writing, or project management services, nor does the voluntary use of MPPTA guarantee the success of a grant application or the grant-funded project