Meatingplace.com
By Rita Jane Gabbett

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack toured the St. Joseph, Mo.-based Triumph Foods pork processing facility on Wednesday, a USDA spokesman confirmed to Meatingplace.

Vilsack took the opportunity of being in Kansas City to address the National Association of Farm Broadcasting to schedule the Triumph tour. It was also the same day USDA announced it will buy $50 million of pork products for federal food nutrition assistance programs. (See USDA to purchase pork for domestic nutrition programs on Meatingplace, Nov. 11, 2009.)

The plant tour also came shortly after his return from a trade mission to Asia to promote agricultural exports. The St. Joseph News-Press quoted Triumph CEO Rick Hoffman as saying he appreciates the secretary’s commitment to enhancing agricultural exports. “This will only lead to a stronger agricultural sector as part of a growing U.S. economy,” he said in a statement.

Triumph Foods is a producer-owned pork processing company that began operations in January, 2006. It processes more than 19,000 hogs each production day and has 2,700 employees. On its Web site, Triumph describes its state-of-the-art plant as the newest such facility in the United States.