ST. PAUL – Helene Murray, on behalf of the MISA Board of Directors, is pleased to announce Tom Nuessmeier, Paul Sobocinski and Julio Cesar Tena Soria will be serving in an Endowed Chair Position at the University of Minnesota. The Endowed Chair is within the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) at the University of Minnesota.

The Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the university will provide funding support to Nuessmeier, Sobocinski and Tena, who serve as the MFU Solving the Local Meat Processing Bottleneck Project Directors. Additionally, the Chair will provide funding to support Ryan Solberg, a graduate student within the public policy master’s program at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

“We are honored that the MISA Board chose to support our work to support small meat processors for workforce recruitment and to develop apprenticeship opportunities for meat processing entrepreneurs wanting to enter the industry and own a business,” said Paul Sobocinski, who has a livestock farm in Redwood County and is the founding director of the MFU Bottleneck Project.

Nuessmeier farms in Le Sueur County raising crops and hogs. He joined the Bottleneck Project team in November 2023.

Tena began working with the Bottleneck Project in March 2024 and leads the group’s outreach to the Hispanic community.

“Our board recognizes the real importance of small processors to sustainable livestock farmers and emerging farmers, and we look forward to the project’s effort to recruit a diverse workforce, that is inclusive and will contribute to small processors resiliency, so vital for our rural communities,” said Helene Murray, MISA Executive Director.

Background:

The Minnesota Farmers Union Solving the Local Meat Processing Bottleneck Project began in 2021 in response to the bottleneck created when large meat processing plants idled processing during COVID-19. The interruption at the large plants exposed the fragility of the nation’s meat processing infrastructure and highlighted the importance of small meat processors.

An initial group of project leaders, including Sobocinski, interviewed 57 small meat processors and issued a report with several recommendations, many of which the state Legislature funded in 2023. The bottleneck group is now working on recruitment.

The University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (RSDP) provided key startup funding for the project. Minnesota Farmers Union Foundation is the project’s fiscal sponsor.

About Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture: MISA’s purpose is to bring together the agricultural community and the University community in a cooperative effort to develop and promote sustainable agriculture in Minnesota and beyond.

About Minnesota Farmers Union Foundation: Minnesota Farmers Union Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization established in 1958 to advance educational initiatives of the Minnesota Farmers Union.

About University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership:

The University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) work to sustain Minnesota’s natural resources and rural communities by working with communities to address and take leadership on sustainability issues. For more information on RSDP: https://extension.umn.edu/rsdp and follow on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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