Mike Naig guest column: For security, increase Iowa livestock production, processing
The shocking shortage of baby formula across the United States has shown us that no product is immune from recent supply chain issues, and with inflation at a 40-year high, consumers are seeing astronomical price increases at both the grocery store and fuel pump. Unfortunately, these issues are expected to continue well into 2023 and beyond without action.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has already raised grain prices by 60% in Africa, but its global impact has only begun. Russia and Ukraine account for roughly 30% of the global wheat supply, and Ukraine produces about 15% of the world’s corn exports. With the U.S. hard red wheat harvest expected to be the lowest since 1963 and no quick way to replace the crops that Ukrainian farmers were unable to plant this year, 2023 global grain reserves are expected to decline.
Too often in recent years, we have seen disruption in the meat-processing industry. Three recent events prove that more needs to be done to ensure the safety, security and reliability of America’s meat processing system.
The first was the August 2019 fire that caused the indefinite shutdown of Tyson Foods’ Finney County beef plant in Holcomb, Kansas, which processed about 30,000 head of fed cattle per week, approximately 6% of the total US processing capacity. The results were as devastating as they were predictable. Retail meat prices jumped 10% in one week. While profit margins for the largest processing companies soared from $153 per head of cattle to $344 in the same period, cattle producers saw their prices fall dramatically with the loss of a buyer.
Then came 2020 and COVID-19, causing more disruption and uncertainty. Like other industries, processing plants were hobbled by workforce challenges that reduced chicken, pork and beef processing, left retailers with empty shelves, and saw consumers struggling to pay higher prices.
In June 2021, a Russian ransomware attack on JBS, the world’s largest meat-processing company, shut down production at facilities in the US, Australia and Canada for at least a day.
Clearly, food security is about more than creature comforts; it is about preventing mass famine and preserving social stability. It is also a matter of national security.
In Iowa, we can do something about it by supporting increased livestock production and processing. In the process, we can significantly boost our state’s economy.
Iowa exports more than 1 million head of cattle to Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin for processing each year. Increasing in-state processing capacity will not only create more jobs and economic vitality in Iowa, but it will also create the foundation for the next generation of farmers to get their start.
Additional processing capacity will also ensure that cattle producers in Iowa and surrounding states receive a fair price so that they can stay in business. Doing so benefits all of us — farmers, retailers and consumers alike.
Over the course of all these recent challenges, we’ve learned lessons and we’re actively taking steps at the state level to encourage more small-scale processing. The Butchery Innovation and Revitalization Fund, which began as a grant program piloted by the Iowa Department of Agriculture at the onset of COVID, has turned into a successful million-dollar program that provides grants to Iowa meat lockers to upgrade their equipment and infrastructure, resulting in increased efficiencies and processing capacity.
We’ve also worked to ease the workforce challenges that Iowa meat processors are currently struggling with. Last year, I was honored to lead the Artisanal Butchery Task Force, which recommended the creation of a meat processing certificate program at Iowa’s community colleges so Iowans can access career training programs and gain on-the-job work experience while being paid.
But there’s more we can do. We need to encourage the development of more mid-sized processors to fill the gap between those local businesses and the industry’s largest facilities. It’s time to move forward to increase processing capacity with facilities built on the pandemic’s lessons and strengthen our food supply chain for the unknown.
The world’s consumer needs Iowa more than ever. We have the opportunity to do more and it’s time we make those opportunities a reality.
Mike Naig is Iowa’s secretary of agriculture.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Opinion: For security, increase Iowa livestock production, processing
