USDA Boosts Effort to Support Virus-Hit Meat, Poultry Producers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it will establish a “coordination center” to help livestock and poultry producers hurt by coronavirus-induced meatpacking plant closures.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will offer “direct support to producers whose animals cannot move to market” and work with state veterinarians and other public officials “to help identify potential alternative markets” as plant shutdowns increase, according to a release posted on the agency’s website.

Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, said the state’s pork industry, the nation’s largest, “is in dire straits” with producers facing “difficult and devastating decisions” about their ...