Missouri Needs A Beef Packing Plant, Lawmakers Say
Two Missouri state lawmakers testified at a hearing in Jefferson City last week an effort is underway to open a beef slaughter facility in the Show-Me state.
According to a report in Missourinet, state representatives Don Rone and Dan Shaul told Missouri’s Joint Committee on Agriculture they participated on a conference call with retailers, grocers and meat wholesalers who are interested in a Missouri beef facility.
“This would be a processing plant in Missouri, for Missouri for Missouri-grown cattle and to be sold in Missouri,” Rone, R-Portageville, said. He chairs the House Agriculture Policy Committee and said the effort is in its early stages and a specific region has not been selected.
Shaul, R-Imperial, who heads the Missouri Grocers Association, says Missourians are interested in locally raised and locally harvested agricultural products.
“What COVID-19 has shown us is that there is a weakness in our supply chain, and the consumers of Missouri want Missouri product and we want to be able to give it to them at retail,” Shaul said.
He says the aim is to get Missouri-made products processed here and sold to Missourians.
Joint Committee on Agriculture Chairman Mike Haffner, R-Pleasant Hill, supports the plan.
“And there’s one thing that the COVID crisis has shown us is that we in Missouri need to take care of our own,” Haffner says. “We don’t necessarily from a legislative format do a very good job of that.”
Supporters of the proposal hope to form a working group by July. Many of Missouri’s commodity groups attended the hearing including the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
There are currently no beef slaughter facilities in Missouri. Two hog slaughter facilities are in operation – Triumph Foods in St. Joseph, and Smithfield in Milan.
Last year the state’s only beef harvest facility, Valley Oaks Steak Company, closed citing the strain of lawsuits and opposition from its neighbors near Lone Jack, MO. Valley Oaks had constructed a new slaughter and processing facility on the site near its 999-head feedlot, and had sought a permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to expand its feedlot to 6,999 head. Under Missouri rules, only feedlots with 7,000 head or more are required to submit an odor plan.
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