USDA Under Secretary and General Counsel Visits Osage Nation

USDA Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Jenny Lester Moffitt and general counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Janie Simms Hipp visited the Osage Nation (ON) Harvest Land and Butcher House on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. 

Moffitt and Hipp traveled from Washington, D.C. to Oklahoma to take part in the Looped Square Meat Processing Facility for the Muscogee Creek Nation.  Aware of the Osage Nation’s Food Sovereignty initiative, both USDA representatives took advantage of the opportunity to travel to Pawhuska and Hominy to tour the Harvest Land and Butcher House facilities. 

Hipp’s career spans more than 35 years in the agriculture sector as an agriculture and food lawyer and policy expert. She was recently nominated by President Biden and approved by the U.S. Senate on August 1, 2021. 

Moffitt spent six years as Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary at the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and ten years managing an organic walnut farm.  She was recently established as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the USDA and is accountable for aiding trade and setting national and international agriculture standards, including the National Organic Program (NOP).

The ON Harvest Land celebrated a ribbon-cutting on December 8, 2020 and the ON Butcher House celebrated its official opening on December 28, 2020.  With a 42,000 square-foot greenhouse, a 44,000 square-foot aquaponics building and food processing areas, and a 19,000 square-foot meat processing facility, the Osage Nation continually seeks to establish food sovereignty. This visit from the USDA Under Secretary and General Counsel marks another important milestone on the ON path to success for the Osage Nation community.