Processing Deserts and the Missing Middle

Ask a Wisconsin livestock farmer what stands between their pasture and a customer's plate, and you might expect to hear about weather, feed costs, or markets. But for farmers in more than a third of the state's counties, the answer is simpler and more stubborn: there is no facility in their home county licensed to process their animals for commercial sale.

Federal and state law require that livestock sold commercially (by the cut, to restaurants, grocery stores, or farmers market customers) be slaughtered at an inspected facility. No inspected processor = no sale. That makes processing access not just a convenience but a legal precondition for participating in local meat markets.

In a new study from Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, we mapped every licensed meat establishment in Wisconsin against the state's pasture landscape. What we found is a striking mismatch between where the grass is and where the processors are.

Presenter: Dr. Success Okafor is the Policy Economist Fellow at MFAI. Dr. Okafor is an agricultural economist specializing in sustainable food systems, spatial analysis, and data-driven agricultural policy. He holds a PhD in Agribusiness and Applied Economics, as well as a post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Data Analytics, from North Carolina A&T State University. Okafor also earned a master’s degree in Agribusiness Economics from Southern Illinois University and a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Nigeria.

Join us for this live webinar as MFAI Policy Economist Fellow Dr. Success Okafor shares the findings from this new research, explores what they mean for farmers and rural communities, and discusses opportunities to strengthen Wisconsin's local meat processing infrastructure.

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Read the full pre-publication manuscript HERE. Questions? Contact Dr. Success Okafor - sokafor@michaelfields.org

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