TOPEKA (KSNT) — As federal officials announce new grants for meat packing plants in Kansas, economists and politicians are clashing over whether or not it could help lower high beef costs.
Vice President JD Vance addressed Kansans at the Hass Metal Engineering facility in Topeka on Monday, Oct. 27. There, he urged Kansas voters to support Senator Roger Marshall in the upcoming November election.
However, Vance also made a big announcement in front of the Kansas crowd.
“Today, the Department of Agriculture is announcing millions of dollars in new grants towards ten meatpacking facilities, right here in the state of Kansas,” Vance said.
The grants, also announced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday, total $57 million. However, the grants aren’t official yet. The U.S. Congress will need to vote to approve them.
If approved, the money would go to 147 meat packing plants across the country, including 10 in Kansas. Vance said he believes this will help smaller meat packing companies build more facilities and produce more meat, in turn lowering costs at the grocery store for Kansans.
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“Four companies have dominated the vast majority of American meat processing,” Vance said. “Here’s what they do. They limit supply, and they jack up the prices that Americans see at the grocery store. That’s ridiculous and it’s got to stop. We want to see more competition to make sure that we can drive down the cost of beef on American shelves.”
Our Kansas Capitol Bureau spoke with a professor of Economics at Kansas State University on Tuesday, Oct. 27 to learn more about how prices could shift in Kansas if the grant is approved. Professor Glynn Tonsor argues $57 million dollars just simply isn’t enough money to make a significant impact on beef prices at the store.
“If you do have $57 million dollars that’s awarded, we’re very likely talking about .5% so less than 1% of the national steer and heifer slaughter number,” Tonsor said. “Should we expect much of an aggregate market impact? I’m very confident in saying no, we should not expect one.”
Additionally, this announcement comes just one month after a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids took place in Southwest Kansas. ICE agents were targeting immigrants who worked in meat packing plants, making 104 arrests.
Tonsor worries there may not be enough workers to build and operate more plants, even if funding is approved.
“It’s a little hard to see how an industry benefits from potentially more physical capacity if there is not parallel labor to run said facilities or to build said facilities,” Tonsor said.
The USDA has not released details specific to Kansas just yet. Our Kansas Capitol Bureau reached out to the department to find out which specific plants would receive the funds. USDA personnel have not yet responded.
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