The Iowa Attorney General has 100-thousand dollars available for grants for projects to improve the swine industry. Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the Attorney General, says the money is a result of the lawsuit filed by Smithfield Foods against the state over the state law prohibiting vertical integration in the pork industry.
Brammer says they ended up settling the case about one year ago and one of the provisions was that Smithfield would provide one-million dollars for the grant program. Brammer says there will be a panel with two democratic and two republican lawmakers who’ll evaluate the requests for applications to hand out the money. Brammer says the first 100-thousand dollars will be awarded for 2007 and then each year for the next nine years.
Brammer says the projects need to be related to increasing profits for producers in the swine industry, helping independent producers compete, or making market information more available, protecting the environment. Brammer says you don’t have to raise the hogs to win one of the grants. He says the applicants don’t have to be producers, but the project has to relate to the swine industry, it could be academia or producer organizations.
Brammer says you simply need to fill out a grant application. He says you can go the A-G’s website at www.iowaattorneygeneral.org, and you’ll find a link with all the information. Or call the A-G’s office. Proposals must be submitted by December 1st, 2006.
Related web sites:
Iowa Attorney General