WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Biden administration has set aside billions of dollars to help the nation’s food supply chain recover from the coronavirus pandemic — and, more recently, the looming global effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and on Wednesday, June 1, it announced new funding and a comprehensive overview of how those initiatives mesh.

“A transformed food system is part of how we as a country become more resilient and competitive in the face of these big and future challenges and threats,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

After the pandemic exposed the deficient resilience of the nation's meat processing industry, in part because of the industry's consolidation over the years, the White House said that increasing the processing capability has been a primary focus for the nation. The top four meatpacking companies control 85% of the beef market, 70% of the pork market, and more than 50% of the chicken market.

Livestock producers lost a significant amount of their sales when the coronavirus put a halt to large processing facilities, forcing some to euthanize their animals.

A push for efficiency led to the consolidation of the meatpacking industry, but the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for balance and resilience, Vilsack concluded.

In response, the USDA created the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program to provide up to $375 million to aid the creation or expansion of smaller, independent processors. The first phase of the program that recently closed for applications is poised to distribute about $150 million in grants. Funding requests totaled more than $800 million, the USDA reported.

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