South Dakota Senator John Thune along with a bi-partisan group of Senators have introduced the Strengthening Local Processing legislation. The measure is a companion bill to one introduced earlier in the House by Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry. Center for Rural Affairs Policy Director Johnathan Hladik says his group backs the legislation and partially what brought it about was the pandemic which caused the backlog of animals needing processing.

He says the backlog has made it necessary for smaller meatpackers to expand and this legislation calls for grants to help those smaller processors.

Hladik says his group will be asking State lawmakers to piggyback on this federal legislation and provide grants at the state level to help small meat processors expand.

Hladik says by strengthening local processing, that also helps keep livestock producers in business which in turn helps the agricultural and overall economies.