The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the publication of a draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the Local Meat Capacity (Local MCap) Grants program. The draft PEA analyzes and describes the potential environmental impacts associated with the establishment of the program.
Based on the analysis conducted by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) under the draft PEA, USDA has preliminarily determined there will not be a significant impact to the human environment. As a result, USDA has not begun preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). AMS intends for this PEA to establish a framework that will make any future assessments more efficient by placing project-specific actions that may 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.
AMS is soliciting public comments on this draft PEA from now until November 30. A Notice of Availability of the draft PEA is available for viewing in the Federal Register. To submit public comments, email LocalMCap@usda.gov. For more information about the Local MCap or to view the draft PEA, visit https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/localmcap.
AMS announced a Request for Applications for Local MCap on April 29, 2023, for up to $75 million in grant funding. Applications were due July 29, 2023. The Local MCap program supports independently owned meat and poultry processing businesses with funds to provide more and better processing options for local livestock producers by giving them the ability to increase their meat and poultry processing capacity and to modernize, diversify and decentralize their processing operations, including rendering.
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