Industry News - AM

USDA supports buffalo meat processing with grant


By Meatingplace Editors on 10/1/2015

USDA has awarded a $49,500 grant to a project on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota that will teach local businesses how to process and market buffalo meat, the agency announced in a news release.

The award, to the Value Added Agriculture Development Center in Pierre, S.D., is part of a $2.6-million package of grants to support a range of projects promoting economic development on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Among the awards is a $134,259 grant to the InterTribal Buffalo Council to provide training on disease management programs to socially disadvantaged ag producers.

The Thunder Valley Development Corp. also will receive $375,000 for a demonstration farm and education center that will include a community garden, greenhouse, food education program and workforce development training for local farmers. It also will establish a coalition to expand local food distribution systems on the reservation.

The largest grant designates $1.85 million for improvements to a solid waste landfill at Oglala Lakota College.

USDA is awarding the grants through its Rural Business Development Grant program, which focuses on programs that offer technical assistance, training and job creation. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation this spring was designated as one of eight new Promise Zones, which the federal government defines says as areas of high-poverty communities in need of help to increase economic activity, the release stated.

A full list of the recipients is available here.


 
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