The Iowa House passed legislation that would open the door to some funding for local meat lockers to expand.

House District 47 Representative Phil Thompson tells Raccoon Valley Radio about the problems they noticed during the pandemic that meat lockers were facing.

“We saw packing plants have issues because of the number of people working in really close spaces, and then also some logistical issues throughout the pandemic that really opened a lot of consumer’s eyes to the value of locally sourcing meat. Then in turn using costume meat processors in our small lockers to process food, so that people could have that on hand and not have to worry about going to the grocery store and seeing empty meat cases.”

Thompson says the bill would allocate $750,000 from the state’s economic development budget to expand capacity for meat lockers that employ less than 50 people. Another part of the bill establishes a task force with the Iowa Department of Ag and Land Stewardship.

“And then a bunch of stakeholders that are going to put together recommendations for creating curriculum for artisanal butchery at our community colleges, Iowa State University, and maybe through the (ISU) Extension so we can get more of these jobs created. Then really just come up with some kind of curriculum that trains butchers so that we can meet the workforce need in this industry too.”

Thompson is optimistic about getting this bill fully approved and adds that since it is part of appropriations and is part of his economic development budget, lawmakers can consider this until the end of the legislative session on April 30th.