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Michigan Turkey highlighted in Biden’s Rural America Event Series

The USDA’s Deputy Secretary says the Biden administration is continuing to invest in rural communities despite uncertainties in Congress.

Xochitl Torres Small tells Brownfield the agency is prioritizing funding already secured for farmers until a new farm bill is passed.

“It creates an opportunity especially for small and mid-sized farmers to be able to get a fair share of their food value while continuing to support our traditional commodities through expanded trade opportunities through addressing challenges like disease with highly pathogenic avian influenza,” she says.

Torres Small was in Michigan Friday as part of the administration’s Rural America Event Series to highlight $5 billion in new investments in rural America funded by the President’s American Rescue Plan and USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation.

Torres Small says the $1.5 million grant the Michigan Turkey Producers cooperative received through the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program will support wastewater infrastructure improvements and processing expansions.

“All across the country, water needs are crucial, but the solution looks different,” she says.  “Rural Development offices all across the country are there to work, hand in hand with local towns, with a meat processor, to find the solutions that are best tailored to both support the economy and support the environment.”

The infrastructure expansions are the first step toward the cooperative adding a second processing shift at their West Michigan plant and doubling production.