Funding bill has additional ag provisions

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Funding bill has additional ag provisions

The recently signed omnibus and coronavirus relief package has additional agricultural benefits. 

Along with Coronavirus Food Assistance Program help for beef producers, 635-million for the Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Services, and funding for dairy business innovation grants, the nearly 56-hundred-page law adds sixty million to help increase local meat processing capacity.  It also establishes a livestock dealer statutory trust fund to assist unpaid livestock sellers, and funds USDA plant-based protein research. 

The omnibus and coronavirus relief package also directs the USDA to review the impacts of slaughter plant line speed waivers given during the height of the outbreak and report back to Congress within ninety days. 

Twenty million dollars has been allocated to the National Animal Health Laboratory Network to prevent the spread of foreign animal diseases, and more than seven million dollars will fund state efforts to manage chronic wasting disease in deer and other cervids.