Summary
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), has entered into a cooperative agreement with Montana Department of Agriculture for the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program Cooperative Agreements (RFSI). Through this agreement Montana will develop and administer coordinated initiatives to build resilience across the middle-of-the-food-supply-chain. Funds will support expanded capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, including specialty crops, dairy, grains for human consumption, aquaculture, and other food products, excluding meat and poultry. This program is intended to provide similar support provided in other USDA funding for meat and poultry processing, but for the non-meat and poultry sectors. Montana will work in partnership with USDA to make competitive subawards to support infrastructure in the middle-of-the-supply-chain for domestic food and farm businesses and other eligible entities. Additionally, MDA will use a limited portion of funds to develop and/or strengthen the State’s supply chain coordination and targeted market development services for local and regional produced product.Montana Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI)
The RFSI program will support middle of the supply chain projects that improve capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products.
RFSI will award competitive grants for middle of the supply chain activities such as:
- processing capacity expansion,
- equipment and facilities modernization,
- worker safety,
- packaging and labeling, and
- storage space.
Montana agriculture industry partners and stakeholders are crucial to ensure RFSI delivers a significant impact for producers, businesses, consumers, and rural communities statewide. Stakeholders may include agricultural producers or processors, nonprofits, local and tribal governments, and institutions involved in middle of the supply chain activities.