American Association of Meat Processors

I was able to take this course and I can confidently say it would benefit new and old butchers and all other meat/poultry industry professionals. What a phenomenal training resource from carcass fabrication to marketing to food safety!

Earlier this year, AAMP announced a partnership with Range Meat Academy, an online training program that is helping to meet the industry-wide demand for more butchers and meat-cutters. Through Range Meat Academy’s online programs, newcomers to the meat industry or existing employees looking for additional training can gain extensive and valuable knowledge about cutting, merchandising and selling meat. To help introduce the program to AAMP members, we are hosting a webinar on Wednesday, July 10, at 11:00 AM Eastern Time. In this one-hour webinar, Range Meat Academy founder Kari Underly will discuss how the training works and how AAMP members can utilize RMA training in their workplace. Registration for this free webinar is available at https://bit.ly/aamprange. Kari is a third-generation butcher whose work in the meat industry has included developing and marketing value-added beef cuts like the flat-iron steak and the Denver steak. She is the author of the James Beard-nominated book, The Art of Beef Cutting: A Meat Professional’s Guide to Butchering and Merchandising. Range Meat Academy’s curriculum is used in junior colleges, workforce development programs, meat distributors, grocery stores and meat processors. The classes cover beef, pork, poultry and lamb, and there are two types of curriculums, the clerk and the cutter. AAMP members can receive a 10% discount when enrolling employees into Range Meat Academy’s various online courses. For more information about RMA, visit www.rangepartners.com. For more information about the benefits and discounts that AAMP members can enjoy as a part of their membership, please visit https://lnkd.in/exhbKtXj.

Don't forget that our 4-part labeling webinar series concludes next Tuesday, April 16, with a session on Labeling Claims. The webinar, led by AAMP's Abbey Davidson and Steph Harmon of Label Compliance Solutions, is free to attend and will start at 10:00 AM Central/11:00 Eastern. Registration is at https://lnkd.in/etj9BVyW. If you are an AAMP member, you can catch up on the previous three webinars by going to the AAMP Materials & Industry Publications page at https://lnkd.in/gEUxFJCv.

In less than an hour -- 11:00 Eastern/10:00 Central, AAMP is hosting a webinar, a review of wastewater treatment. If you wish to learn more about the technologies, you can still register and join us at: https://lnkd.in/eWmiJxfA

AAMP members qualify for a reduced rate on registration for this excellent event! Contact Jhardcastle@meatscience.org for details and a promotional code.

Thanks to Meat + Poultry for sharing this information. We are working to bring all of our information about the EPA proposal onto our website so that anyone in the industry, or anyone who cares about the small, independent meat industry, can make their voice heard.

It's time to book your hotel rooms for the AAMP Convention, taking place August 1-3 in Omaha. Our host hotel is the Hilton Omaha, which is connected to the CHI Center via a sky bridge for maximum convenience. Registration for the convention itself will be available later this month. https://lnkd.in/e2eVa_S7

Next Tuesday, AAMP has a great labeling webinar planned for you! It is the first of four labeling webinars presented by AAMP Outreach Specialist Abbey Davidson and Steph Harmon of Label Compliance Solutions. Join us on January 16 at 10:00 AM Central/11:00 AM Eastern to gain a basic understanding of what needs to be included on your labels. The webinar is free to all meat industry professionals. For more information and to register for each of our labeling webinars: https://lnkd.in/ercrG6Aq

The EPA has released its proposed rule on Effluent Limitation Guidelines. AAMP Executive Director Chris Young has issued the following statement regarding the rule: “In reviewing the new proposed EPA rule on Effluent Limitation Guidelines, AAMP is encouraged by the work EPA has done in the development of the proposed rule to protect the small business entities that make up the majority of our members. We had voiced concerns early on to EPA about the potential costs and devastating consequences of compliance for the small and very small processors. We are happy to see EPA responded to our concerns and minimized the impact of the rule on those businesses. “AAMP is still concerned about the overall impact of the rule on the industry as a whole, and we would have liked to have seen EPA spend more time gathering data from a larger sampling of plants to get a better picture of the industry as a whole, rather than testing wastewater from a handful of plants. I think it would have been beneficial for both industry and EPA if there had been more of a collaboration between the two to come up with some real common-sense answers to these wastewater concerns. “AAMP, and I believe the meat and poultry processing Industry as a whole, want to be environmentally responsible and protect the waterways around us, but I think that we are all better served by working together to find treatment solutions that are economically sustainable and do not force even one business to close.” You can find more information from EPA in the link below: https://lnkd.in/g8NbCVFy AAMP will have much more to say about this and will advise our members shortly. Stay tuned!

Thanks to Food Processing magazine and Andy Hanacek for the opportunity to talk about the potential damage that EPA's proposal on effluent limitations can wreak on the small meat processing industry. We are monitoring this situation and will do everything in our power to make sure that over-regulation doesn't decimate small processors.