TOPEKA, Kan. – One positive thing that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, is it spiked an interest in buying local, Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Mike Beam told the Kansas House Appropriations committee in his state of agriculture address in Topeka Feb. 3.
“That gave entrepreneurs in the ag sector an opportunity to start looking at how to market directly,” he said Beam.
The nearly 90 Kansas state inspection meat processing plants and meat lockers saw a significant increase in demand. Smaller local meat processors increased their output by at least 23%, beginning last April, Beam noted.
In response to demand for local food, the state gave out 257 grants in 80 counties. That included $11.5 million dollars for meat processing facilities, some direct-to-consumer farmers, dairy and meat processing, grocery stores, smaller stores, 54 food pantry and soup kitchens and registered farmers markets, Beam said.
The funds made a difference, he said. Meat processing and lockers were able to add cold storage to extend storage time and expand their capacity. A Kansas City church developed a community kitchen, specialty crop farmers used funds for a water system, and others orchestrated a system for online food orders.
Kansas also dealt with challenges on the animal health side in 2020, with several incidences of a foreign animal disease called vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) this past spring and summer. It was found mainly in 26 southeastern Kansas counties. Staff and veterinarians from the U.S. Department of Agriculture did outreach with local fairs and horse shows and did 270 investigations.
