RICHMOND, VA. — Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin confirmed in late October that the Fauquier County Department of Agricultural Development and the Fauquier Livestock Exchange Board of Directors awarded a planning grant to help develop a meat processing facility in Marshall, Va.

The $9,800 grant from the governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) Fund Planning Grant Program, would help establish a management structure and strategic plan for the operations of the new meat plant.

“It’s so important for our Virginia livestock producers to have a strong local pipeline for processing their animals and providing consumers with high-quality local meat,” said Joe Guthrie, Virginia commissioner of agriculture. “Governor Youngkin previously supported this project with an AFID fund planning grant in 2022, and this latest grant demonstrates the state’s continued support of this project and the Commonwealth’s livestock industry.”

According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, since 2013 more than $1.1 million in AFID planning grants have been awarded to 55 projects in 66 localities around the Commonwealth.

Earlier in 2024, the VDACS established the Central Virginia Poultry Cooperative (CVPC), hoping to attract new poultry businesses to the area after the closure of a Tyson Foods plant in Glen Allen.