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MO Ag Dept. will try again for state meat inspection funds
Missouri Governor Mike Parson vetoed the near $500,000 that would reimburse the Missouri Ag Department’s meat inspection program for unexpected costs and Missouri’s ag director says the agency will go back to the drawing board.
Chris Chinn tells Brownfield “we’ll have to go back and ask for supplemental funding (from the legislature). We’ll need spending authority as well as general revenue dollars to move forward. In the meantime, we’ll do what we can to continue serving the customers we have that need the state inspection.”
Parson said the expansion of meat and poultry processing isn’t an allowable use for the Ag Protection Fund, where the state legislature wanted the money to come from.
And Chinn says the ag department will do their best to support new meat processors in the state, but “we’re going to run out of money before the end of the fiscal year.”
There’s been a growing interest in local meat processing since the COVID pandemic, encouraged by the USDA.
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 unexpected costs due to the growing interest in meat processing.
She has previously told Brownfield growth in the state’s meat and poultry processing industry is at risk of becoming stagnant due to a lack of funding.
