Yesterday, Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the creation of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Stand-Up Program during the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture’s (NASDA) Annual Meeting. Secretary Rollins shared that the program would provide up to $50 million to help states join or expand federal-state meat inspection programs through the Cooperative Interstate Shipping Program (CIS).
Currently, 30 states participate under the Meat and Poultry Inspection Program (MPI) program, but only 11 of the 30 eligible states participate in the CIS program. High regulatory and compliance costs have been barriers for further state participation. Additionally, persistent labor challenges in the processing sector continue to create challenges and uncertainty around efforts to diversify processing options for producers around the country. While the announcement includes funding, structural changes need to happen within the program to help support additional states participation.
While additional resources are certainly welcome and needed, farmers and ranchers need USDA to make progress on the real and persistent hurdles state meat inspection programs face. NCBA looks forward to further details on this new effort in the days to come.
