Will Iowa Start Paying More For Chicken?
Meat has been really been going through it, especially poultry.
Now that we keep having more cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza here in Iowa, containment is becoming more and more important.
However with the control meatpackers and the spread of bird flu, what is going to happen to prices?
Jenny Lester Moffitt, the Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a Radio Iowa report talked about mitigating the spread of disease.
"So far the data shows that we're really not seeing spread between producers, but we're always reminding producers about biosecurity."
On Friday, Moffitt, and Congresswomen Cindy Axne met with meat locker owners and others connected to the industry Friday. During this meeting, the two talked about the newest grants from the USDA.
The USDA just launched its Meat and Poultry Processing Capacity Technical Assistance Program. According to Farm Progress, this grant will provide technical assistance to meat and poultry projects.
According to Moffitt, these funds can be used for things such as equipment and marketing.
"We need more and better markets for producers," Moffitt said. "Producers need more places to be able to bring their cattle, their sheep, their swine, their bison to market -- all sorts of different animals.”
She adds that the grants can be used to help lockers sell across state lines.
This will help producers have more options in the marketplace.
Looking past meatpackers, people are worried about poultry products we are seeing on shelves. In an article from NPR, the effect this will have on the price of poultry meat and eggs will largely depend on how widespread the disease becomes.
Back in 2015, during the last outbreak, egg prices increased but the chicken meat wasn’t as affected but turkeys saw a price increase.
It will all depend on how the disease spreads.