Ag News: Meat Processors Hiring Foreign Labor

**Nearly twice as many meat-processing plants employ short-term foreign workers than in 2015, “a small but growing trend,” according to an Investigate Midwest report.

Seaboard Foods, one of the companies using H-2B guest workers, tells www.agriculture.com it pays the workers the same wage and provides the same benefits it gives domestic employees.

Labor Department records show guest workers are employed at 11 meat plants nationwide. Companies can turn to foreign workers when they can’t find enough Americans.

www.agriculture.com/news/business/meatpackers-hiring-more-guestworkers

**The USDA has announced the establishment of a $400 million Dairy Donation Program, or DDP.

It was put together by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service along with the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and aims to facilitate timely dairy product donations while reducing food waste.

It’s the second part of an over $2 billion comprehensive package to help the dairy industry recover from the pandemic and improve or establish programs to make it more resilient.

**The Department of Food and Agriculture is funding $69-million in grants to provide nutritious foods to low-income communities enduring the pandemic.

The money includes more than $6 million in nutrition grants to increase fresh fruit and vegetable offerings for shoppers in underserved California areas.

Funds also will support the VeggieRX nutrition program at

Fresh Approach in Concord and provide produce for Los Angeles County diabetics.