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President Biden signed the Supply Chain Executive Order one year ago.
Supply chain disruptions have become a household discussion topic the last year. Recovery has been slow, but according to Sameera Fazili, deputy director of the National Economic Council. the administration has published a multi-year action plan to help those products and industries that are most vulnerable.
“Those included semiconductors as well as critical minerals that are so important to the clean energy technologies and other technologically advanced products,” she says.
The Biden administration is working on a plan to diversify and make the meat and poultry supply chain more resilient. USDA is now accepting applications to expand independent processing capacities to mitigate risks.
“We have seen increased concentration and lack of competition in the processing and distribution of meat that has really hurt our farmers and ranchers,” says Fazili. “Over this past year we’ve seen it’s hurt our consumers as well with rising prices for meat. We’ve also been very vulnerable to cyberattacks at meat processing plants.”
While there are efforts being done to help rural America, Fazili says there’s still plenty that needs to be done. Workforce development and transportation are at the top of that list.
“We hear consistently that in a number of sectors they’re having trouble attracting the kind of workforce that they need and want,” she says. “You’ll see us doing more work in that area. You’ll also see us doing more related to transportation, related to issues that farmers and ranchers may be facing.”
A lot of that work will be done with the Port of Oakland in California and the Port of Savannah in Georgia. To read the White House’s full plan, click here.