Republican elected officials in several states want answers from the USDA after a Midwest plant failed, despite millions in taxpayer assistance. Meanwhile, the poultry industry is celebrating Americans’ taste for chicken. But the bird flu is making its way through dairy herds in western Utah.
Demanding Answers
Some Republican lawmakers from numerous states want to know whether the USDA provided proper oversight leading up to the collapse of the Minnesota-based company that had received tens of millions in taxpayer aid to reopen a chicken processing plant in Charles City, Iowa.
Pure Prairie Poultry received $46 million from the USDA before it eventually shut down, leading to ag officials destroying 1.3 million chickens.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack defended the agency’s decision to award the company the money and said that the situation was an “unusual circumstance.”
The Des Moines Register talked to Vilsack. Read that story here.
But GOP lawmakers from Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin questioned the USDA’s supervision after giving money to Pure Prairie Poultry. Some Republican members of Congress sent a letter to Vilsack.
”We are writing today with deep concern regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) distribution and oversight of grants and loans intended to help meat and poultry processors start or expand processing capacity,” the letter stated.
Here is the letter from Republican members of Congress to Secretary Vilsack regarding Pure Prairie Poultry’s failure at its Iowa facility.
Chomping on Chicken
While the specialty chicken processing plant in Iowa failed, it doesn’t mean that Americans aren’t eating chicken. Consumers concerned about escalating grocery costs can choose chicken as a cheaper alternative to some other proteins.
It seems like nearly every fast-food chain restaurant has some type of chicken sandwich. McDonald’s four decades ago started selling chicken nuggets. The 2024 addition is a Chicken Big Mac.
Reuters has this story about how these are good times right now for some poultry producers. And
The Poultry Site cites a report from CoBank about a strong quarter of chicken consumption for the industry.
Bird Flu Spread
What once primarily focused on punishing the poultry industry has continued souring the dairy industry. Eight commercial dairy operations in Cache County, Utah, which is about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, have reported bird flu infections.
KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, Utah, posted this story about the bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle herds and the mandatory testing announcement for all dairies in Cache County.
Fourteen states have now reported positive cases of bird flu in dairy cattle. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced Wednesday that it will enhance testing and monitoring and “will implement a tiered strategy to collect milk samples to better assess where H5N1 is present, with the goal to better inform biosecurity and containment measures, as well as to inform state-led efforts to reduce risk to farm workers who may be in contact with animals infected with H5N1."
This is the advisory from the USDA on its latest strategy regarding H5N1.
