Osage Nation opens new meat-processing plant
Osage Nation opens new meat-processing plant
Nation has been dealing with pandemic-related meat shortage
Osage Nation meat processing plant
December 28, 2020 at 6:52 pm CSTBy Steve Berg
Like a lot of people, the Osage Nation has had trouble during the pandemic finding meat for its food programs for tribal members.
And it was ironic considering the nation has a 43,000 acre ranch with lots of cattle and bison.
But what they didn’t have was a way to process the meat to USDA standards.
“There’s a lot of rules when you put food into what they call the ‘stream of commerce,’ and we got busy with that,” said Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear .
Extremely busy as it turns out.
They cut the ribbon on Monday on a brand-new 19,000 square-foot processing plant that was essentially created from scratch in just a matter of months.
The nation says they’ll now have plenty of locally-raised beef, bison, and pork.
The Chief says Nation leaders did a magnificent job to finish such a complicated project in a very short amount of time.