Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that the purchase "will assist food banks and other federal food nutrition assistance programs" and "offer recipients a wide variety of healthy products."
Reuters reports that supplies of dark meat chicken "increased this year after Russia, a leading buyer of dark-meat leg quarters, banned imports of U.S. chicken beginning in January. Russia just recently lifted the ban on many U.S. chicken plants." For background on the issue of US poultry sales to Russia, click here, here, and here to read past US Ag&Food Law and Policy Blog posts on the subject.
USDA recently reported that there were 115.48 million pounds of "leg quarters in storage, up 33 percent from a year ago."
To read the USDA news release, click here.
To read the Reuters story, click here.
Posted: 09/08/2010
