Deputy Secretary Presser Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. Newly appointed Deputy Ag Secretary, Dr. Jewell Bronaugh has been on the job for just a few weeks, but says she’s hit the ground running on many issues.
USDA recently announced it will invest $4 billion to strengthen the U.S. food system, and Dr. Bronaugh says one of the top issues is establishing voluntary markets like a carbon credit market …
BRONAUGH … “So, we will have some funding to address food production, and that funding will come from some grants, training, and technical assistance for producers and essential workers. Another pot will address food processing: investments in new and expanded regional processing capacity.”
Some of our shortcomings, Bronaugh says have been exposed in the past year and a half …
BRONAUGH … “The pandemic highlighted some of the challenges we have with having very few processors out here processing a lot of the meats that we eat, so, really expanding local and regional processing capacity is going to really create a more resilient supply chain and food system.”
And then, Bronaugh says comes the supply chain …
BRONAUGH … “There will be another pot for food distribution and aggregations. People need the right infrastructure to get the food where it's needed, you had long shipping times for some products, and we're going to invest in food system infrastructure.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the programs that will benefit from this major investment for agriculture.
