On August 13, the Wyoming Business Alliance (WBA) hosted a virtual group of well-known industry experts to discuss the beef processing opportunities in Wyoming and the current situation of strengthening local processing to promote the development of Wyoming’s agricultural economy.
Speakers include Wyoming State Representative Taylor Lindholm, Wyoming State Senator Cheri Steinmetz, Wyoming State Department of Agriculture (WDA) Deputy Director Stacia Berry, Wyoming State Agricultural Development Manager, Jill Whiteminger Growers Association (JGA) Tregemba, Executive Vice President of Wyoming Ranch Jim Magagna, Wyoming Ranch Foods, LLC founder Carla Weiser, 307 Meat Company founder Kelcey Christensen, Wyoming Central Community College President Dr. Brad Tyndall, and American Meat and Produce Market founder Shonda Boyd.
Lindholm started the discussion by bringing the meaningless exemption of the Federal Meat Inspection Act to the attention of the participants.
He explained: “Except for cat fish, all fish are not subject to the Federal Meat Inspection Act, because apparent fish is obviously the only fish that has spoiled that can breed bacteria,” he explained. “Obviously, this is not the case, but as far as farm fish is concerned, catfish is the only species that has been reviewed by the federal government.”
In addition, Lindholm pointed out that residents of Wyoming can take advantage of the 1,000 bird exemption in the bill, which means that individuals can process 1,000 birds and sell them directly to consumers without any Labels, permits or inspection restrictions.
“When we started to study some of these absurd regulations, we began to doubt whether this is really related to the health and safety of consumers. Of course some are like this, but I think it is very clear when the producers of cattle farms can They sell 1,000 chickens without regulations, but they can’t sell T-shaped steaks, which actually has nothing to do with safety, he said.
In order to fight these regulations, Lindholm said it is vital that the federal delegation begins to understand some very necessary regulatory changes related to the federal meat inspection law.
“Initially, my partner and I were considering building a packaging plant from scratch on some open spaces in Platte County,” Weatherer explained. “We encountered a zoning problem and had to jump many laps and even figure out whether the land we were buying was worth it.
Weiser explained that this prompted her to purchase the National Inspection Agency in Torrington, which closed in 2017. Today, Weiser and her partners are transforming the plant, called Wyoming Ranch Foods (LLC), and expressed hope that it will be operational on November 16 this year.
Steinmetz pointed out: “The COVID-19 pandemic does provide an opportunity for fundamental change.” “We used the $1.25 billion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to take advantage of this opportunity. In the Senate One In Document No., we revised the funds to include funds for food production and processing.”
In addition, Berry also pointed out that Governor Gordon announced the “Wyoming State Meat Processing and Expansion Subsidy Program” on September 2.
“So far, we have received 28 applications for the program. So far, the committee has provided nearly $3 million in rewards to entities across the state. The scope of the work of these entities includes attempts to improve the level of testing and Freezer capacity and improving infrastructure or equipment.” Berry explained.
She continued: “We really encourage those who think that something may have been missed in their application to continue to work with the committee, and we encourage those who have not yet applied before the December 30 deadline.”
“Currently, we are focusing on making some regulatory changes, getting rid of excessive regulatory restrictions, and expanding the national inspection of meat for interstate transportation. These three things are very important.”
Post time: Oct-21-2020