WASHINGTON – The US Department of Agriculture announced on Nov. 3 that it would publish a draft of the Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the Local Meat Capacity (Local MCap) Grants program. The draft involves analyzing and describing the potential environmental impacts of establishing the Local MCap program.

The Local MCap began in April 2023 and featured up to $75 million in grant funding. Applications were due on July 29, 2023. 

The program focuses on supporting processors with smaller-scale projects that increase local meat processing availability and variety. 

“These Local Meat Capacity grants will provide local livestock and poultry producers with more and better options by modernizing, diversifying, and decentralizing processing capacity,” said Jenny Lester Moffitt, USDA marketing and regulatory programs under secretary in April.

According to the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), the draft from PEA determined that there would not be a significant impact on the human environment, which led the USDA to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

AMS stated that it intends for the PEA to establish a framework that makes a future assessment more efficient by placing project-specific actions that need more analysis into priority tiers.

“As decisions on specific applications are made, if additional National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis is required, the agency will conduct an environmental review to supplement the analysis set forth in this PEA,” the agency said.

Until Nov. 30, AMS will take public comment on the PEA, which can be done here.