Havre meat processing co-op gets a national stage

A Havre-based meat processing cooperative received some national attention last month when the chair of its board sat on a panel during a USDA annual forum.

A release from Montana Farmers Union said Montana Premium Processing Cooperative Board Chair Paul Neubauer was part of "Strategies for more and better markets" panel discussion at the USDA 99th Annual Agriculture Outlook Forum held Feb. 23-24 in Arlington, Virginia.

Projects like Montana Premium Processing Cooperative help display alternative systems, as well as bridge gaps between producers, consumers and lawmakers, Neubauer said.

The user-owned co-op's steering committee was started three years ago with the help of Montana Farmers Union and is part of a larger effort to increase local processing and packing capacity as the industry becomes increasingly consolidated.

Tours were held of the facility early in February as it was set to process its first head of cattle.

The Farmers Union release said MPPC said the facility has begun processing beef, sheep, bison and hogs and is working toward USDA certification.

It also has helped out the city and the Havre Community Food Bank by processing venison for the food bank from deer culled in the city's Urban Deer Management Plan.

The project received nearly $292,000 in funding through USDA Rural Development's Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program, part of the American Rescue Plan Act. Montana Farmers Union and Farmers Union Industries have helped facilitate the project.

USDA, and the President Joe Biden administration in general, have been pushing to increase local food processing and consumption, and have made large investments in creating facilities for processing and facilitating local purchases of food such as by school lunch programs.

The Havre facility was part of that last fall, when Farm Service Agency Administer Zach Ducheneaux toured the Montana Premium Processing Cooperative location.

Deacheneuax said, "This project is exactly what we need more of" to increase meat processing capacity and build fairer markets for producers, the Farmers Union release reported.

The release added that an "alarming" amount of concentration and consolidation in the meat packing industry, as well as agriculture as a whole, has negatively impacted family farmers and ranchers and rural areas, where financial resources to implement solutions are often limited.

"Everywhere that people look in the ag and food system and see something that doesn't work well for producers and consumers ... I think we can draw a line from that back to the impact of consolidation and concentration," Neubauer said in the press release.

Better rules and regulations are needed, along with people pooling resources to build alternative structures, such as what Montana producers have accomplished with MPPC, he added.

"I would encourage people not to think that they have to tackle those issues on their own or even that that's possible," Neubauer said, pointing to cooperative models and advocacy organizations as outlets for change.

"I think we have to be involved in organizations that help orchestrate cooperation and accumulate our power and leverage. We're much stronger when we work together, and Farmers Union is in a great position to do that because we have a strong voice that people recognize and respect in seats of power," he said.

To learn more about MPPC, people can go to https://www.mtpremiumprocessing.com .