SPUR Program
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers (SPUR) Program that will provide temporary support for eligible beef processing establishments. For decades, the beef processing industry has been heavily concentrated and today just four companies control nearly 85% of the beef processing market.
Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Richard Fordyce says this program will help ensure domestic processors can continue operating during a period where the U.S. cattle herd is at a 75-year low.
Fordyce… “ We took $500 million out of the Commodity Credit Corporation to support this effort. We're going to be working through the chief economist's office to be able to create a payment calculation. It'll be by the head that go through these facilities. These facilities, to be eligible, they need to be USDA inspected, or they also need to be a part of the Talmadge-Aiken Cooperative Inspection Program, which is essentially state inspectors that are basically licensed to do USDA inspections. So they've got to be USDA inspected or Talmadge-Aiken eligible. And we are going to administer this through the Farm Service Agency.”
Maintaining this regional processing capacity is also a key part of the Make America Healthy Again movement by ensuring access to high-quality protein in alignment with the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
