THE Obama Administration has a vision to rebuild the country's rural economy that includes creating a parallel universe of local and regional markets and "food hub" distribution centers that will help small — maybe even all — farmers market their production closer to home. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a "gap analysis" that maps the locations of small livestock producers by county and compares production to the availability of small slaughter processing facilitiesas well as rendering plants. The study was conducted as part of USDA's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.
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