Funds from the American Rescue Plan will be used to develop and install mobile meat processing and to train butchers. A total of $2.9 million will be assigned to the Farmers Union Foundation to create 150 new jobs, retain 200 jobs and generate private investment.
It is difficult to see how this small drop in the bucket can do more than benefit small and local communities. It will not in any way address disparities between processing capacity and demand under unusual circumstances such as the 2020 COVID pandemic that shuttered or constrained output of both hog and beef plants. Expenditure on small, and by definition inefficient, meat processing is a diversion from the problem of inadequate capacity in large plants. In recognition of the situation in 2020 and the consequences of the Tyson Foods fire in the Holcomb, KS. plant, private enterprise will invest close to a $1 billion in extensions and improvements. This expenditure along with the establishment of a few new large plants and installation of mechanization should provide spare capacity to account for unusual situations.
The comment by the Secretary of Commerce, Gina M. Raimondo, that the proposed investment in Central Minnesota “will help address supply chain issues and increase U.S. competitiveness in the global market” is unrealistic political puffery.