During the pandemic, we saw the local meat locker’s resurgence and discovered how vulnerable we were to disruptions in our meat processing supply chain. Since then, efforts have been made at the state and federal levels to make these supply chains more resilient and build up more capacity in the processing sphere.
While looking at the situation, it was discovered that the poultry processors across the country didn’t enjoy the same type of classification options that we saw in red meat packers. It had nothing to do with food safety, and more to do with just omission of language in the regulations. Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig talks about what has been discovered and what Iowa is trying to do at the state level to ease the burden.
Naig says that the more they have been digging into this subject, the more they have found themselves scratching their heads as to why these omissions happened in the first place.
It is now up to the State Legislature to act on the bill.
