USDA Announces Funding to Strengthen Critical Supply Chains
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced additional investment into the Build Back Better initiative to support critical supply chains by strengthening the food system, creating new market opportunities, addressing climate crisis, helping disadvantaged communities, and supporting jobs throughout the supply chain.
The USDA will invest more than $4 billion, which is in addition to a previously announced $1 billion investment intended to support food insecurity and build food bank capacity. With the additional funding, the Build Back Better initiative will seek to strengthen critical parts of the U.S. food system including:
- Transparency, competition, and conduct in livestock markets and meat processing sector
- Addressing the shortage of small meat processing facilities
- Ensuring the food system is fair, competitive, distributed, and resilient
- Supporting health with access to healthy, affordable food
- Ensuring growers and workers receive a greater share of the food dollar
Funding opportunities through this investment will include grants, loans, and new financing mechanisms for the following priorities:
- Food Production: Food production relies on growers, including farmers and ranchers, workers, and critical inputs. But a diminishing share of the food dollar goes to these essential workers. USDA will invest in the current and future generation of food producers and workers throughout the food system with direct assistance, grants, training and technical assistance, and more.
- Food Processing: The pandemic highlighted challenges with consolidated processing capacity. It created supply bottlenecks, which led to a drop in effective plant and slaughter capacity. Small and midsize farmers often struggled to compete for processing access. USDA will make investments to support new and expanded regional processing capacity.
- Food Distribution & Aggregation: Food aggregation and distribution relies on people working together throughout the food system and having the right infrastructure to gather, move and hold the food where and when it is needed. This system was stressed during the pandemic due to long shipping distances and lack of investment in local and regional capacity. USDA will make investments in food system infrastructure that can remain resilient, flexible and responsive.
- Markets & Consumers: The U.S. spends more on health care and less on food than any other high-income nation; yet the U.S. has higher rates of diet-related illness and a lower life expectancy than those nations. At the same time, many socially disadvantaged and small and mid-sized producers do not have equitable access to markets. USDA will support new and expanded access to markets for a diversity of growers while helping eaters access healthy foods.
Morrison will continue to post updates as more information is released.
For more information on this initiative, please contact the Morrison Grants Team by email at grants@morrisonco.net or call us at 530-893-4764.