USDA Announces Programs to Strengthen Food Supply Chain

On May 3^rd, the USDA announced two major initiatives to strengthen food supply chain infrastructure across the United States.  The first is a $420 million dollar program called the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI), which will partner with the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).  The object of RFSI is to assist small and medium sized food producers, consumers, and rural communities by providing funding to projects that strengthen the distribution, collection, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, and wholesaling of dairy, grains, specialty crops, and other food products other than meat and poultry.  AMS encourages applications to be those “that serve smaller farms and ranches, new and beginning farmers and ranchers, underserved producers, veteran producers, and/or underserved communities.”

In addition to RFSI, the USDA announced the creation of 12 regional Food Business Centers across the country.  The goal of these centers is to help strengthen local and regional food systems, which will help the overall food supply chain of the country.  The centers will provide help to farmers, ranchers, and other food businesses seeking to access new markets, and understand what resources they can receive from local, state, and federal policy.  In addition to this, the centers will also provide technical assistance.