Baldwin Delivers $27 Million to Help Grow Wisconsin’s Agricultural Businesses
Baldwin-backed partnership between Wisconsin and USDA will build resilience in food supply chains, support agriculture businesses, and grow the economy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced a new partnership between Wisconsin and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to strengthen the Badger State’s food supply through the Baldwin-backed American Rescue Plan. Through this agreement, USDA and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) will offer $27 million in grant funding for projects designed to build resilience across the food supply chain.
“Wisconsin’s agricultural industry is core to our culture, heritage, and economy, and thanks to Senator Baldwin’s advocacy at the federal level, we’ve been able to direct more than $100 million in federal funds to support farmers across the state and invest in bolstering our food processors so they can increase capacity and get more of their product to market,” said Governor Evers. “The announcement of this new cooperative agreement between USDA and DATCP will only build upon those efforts, strengthening our local food supply chains, supporting our rural communities, and keeping food on our grocery store shelves and our tables.”
The partnership will fund projects that expand processing capacities, increase food storage space, reduce energy use, increase commercial kitchen space, improve aggregation and distribution, improve marketing and branding, and increase access to value-added markets for small farms. This will ultimately create more diverse local and regional market options and create additional economic opportunities for communities, allowing them to retain more of the value chain dollar. The state’s priorities are informed by stakeholder engagement and outreach to underserved producers to better understand their needs.
Wisconsin is accepting applications for this Infrastructure Grant funding through March 6, 2024, and applicants should apply through DATCP. AMS encourages applications that serve smaller farms and ranches, new and beginning farmers and ranchers, underserved producers, veteran producers, and underserved communities.
For more information, visit the AMS Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure webpage.
An online version of this release is available here.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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