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Meat processing growth slows in MO due to a lack of inspection funds

Missouri’s Ag Director says growth in the state’s meat and poultry processing industry is at risk of becoming stagnant due to a lack of funding.

Chris Chinn says there are 7 establishments interested in state inspection and earlier this year, there were at least 8 requests for Cooperative Interstate Shipping from already inspected establishments. She says the department can’t move forward with those until funding is provided. Chinn also says 4 new state inspectors are needed to meet the growing demand, but that funding request was denied by state lawmakers. 

“We’ll go back to the drawing table to see what we can do and work with the governor’s office to determine if we go forward again next year. If so, has that number changed? Do we need to have more than 4 based on the growth of the industry?”

More than 3.2 million pounds of red meat and more than 850,000 pounds of poultry were inspected and passed in Missouri last year. She tells Brownfield without the additional funding, this number will remain stagnant.

“There’s a lot of interest in people knowing who’s producing their food. They want to buy directly from a farmer. Some farmers are going direct to consumers marketing their beef products, but to do that, they need a state inspected facility.”

 The USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service partners with the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Meat and Poultry Inspection Program to fund 50% of inspections.

Chinn says prior to Fiscal Year 2022, USDA was reimbursing 50% of eligible inspection expenses to the state and since then, reimbursement has declined and the state ag department has had to offset the unexpected costs.

She says the ag department went to the state legislature to get reimbursed $500,000 for the costs and “the state legislature did give us spending authority, but not the general revenue dollars to go with it.”

The interest in local meat and poultry processing has increased since the COVID pandemic. In 2019, MDA’s PIP was inspecting 29 meat and poultry processing facilities and about five years later, that’s nearly doubled to 57 meat and poultry processing facilities.

Chinn says she’s optimistic USDA will continue reimbursing 50% for state inspection expenses in the future, but federal funding hasn’t increased for the program.