Meat + Poultry - April 2016 - 16

WA S H I N G T O N

Minimizing
local inspection
A big trend growing in American agriculture and food
production is encouraging the consumption of "local
foods," as opposed to foods that are raised or grown far
away, then shipped all over the country.
There's been a great deal of encouragement in this
direction. "Gaining Ground," a book written recently by
Forrest Pritchard, celebrates farmers markets, saving the
family farm, and the desire of consumers to eat more foods
produced locally. Now a new piece
of legislation in Congress hopes to
encourage this trend by making it
easier for small farms and ranches
to increase and expand their reach
in local market areas.
The US Senate is lending its
support to this idea, with the
bi-partisan backing of Sen. Angus
King (I-Maine) and Sen. Rand Paul
(R-Ky.). The legislation is called
PRIME - the Processing Revival
and Intrastate Meat Exemption
Act - and it's exactly the same as a
bill introduced by US Reps. Chellie
Pingree (D-Maine) and Thomas
"Food safety
Massie (R-Ky.) last summer. That
standards
House bill is now co-sponsored by
should not be
20 members.
These pieces of legislation
compromised
would
allow states to ok
for the
distribution of custom-slaughtered
convenience
meat directly to consumers,
foodservice and retail within
of a market
those states only, not across state
segment."
lines. Right now, the law exempts
custom slaughter of animals from
federal meat inspection regulations, but only if the meat is
slaughtered for personal, household, guest and employee
use - not in the general commercial marketplace. There is
already an exemption for poultry companies, but not for
businesses producing red meat.
Rep. Massie says that in order for companies to sell
"locally grown" meat to consumers, farmers have to
send their animals to a small number of USDA-inspected
slaughterhouses, sometimes long distances away, making
the meat more expensive. It also means that locally raised

MEAT+ POULTRY | 04.16 | www.meatpoultry.com

meat will often be mixed with meat raised from other areas.
Maine's Rep. Pingree, who raises grass-fed beef on her
farm, says small farmers don't always have easy access to
USDA-inspected processors. She feels the current system
hurts the production of local beef, especially in New
England states like Maine.
Needless to say, large meat processors aren't too
happy about this plan. The North American Meat Institute
(NAMI), whose members include big meat packers,
opposes both bills. The Institute says its members care
about the wholesomeness of the food products they
market to American consumers. Federal inspection, or
state inspection "equal to" federal inspection, is important
in making sure those food products are wholesome. "Food
safety standards should not be compromised for the
convenience of a market segment," NAMI says.
That market segment includes great interest in locallygrown and produced meat and other foods, and is driving
the growth of small farms in states like Maine, says Tori
Lee Jackson, an extension educator with the Univ. of Maine
Cooperative Extension. And it's not just Maine that lacks
USDA-inspected slaughter plants. The same could be said
of an area in the Northeast US running from New York
north to Maine.
A slaughter and livestock report that was done 12 years
ago for the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation,
found most of the farms in the survey of 600 produced and
processed very few livestock. On average, producers had
to travel 53 miles to a USDA-inspected slaughter plant,
some had to travel up to 300 miles.
To no one's surprise, respondents to the survey said
the most important priority was a need for more USDAinspected slaughter plants. Even though there are growing
numbers of diversified farms in the Northeast where
production, processing and retail happens under one
roof, the current regulations hurt the possibility of these
small businesses succeeding. With a decreasing number of
smaller slaughtering plants operating across the country,
and with the practice of buying boxed beef becoming
more prevalent, the chances of this legislation passing
doesn't seem great. And with the big slaughterhouses
enjoying the advantage of selling their meat for processing
to the small plants, the odds of a plan like this succeeding
in Congress don't seem high either.
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Meat + Poultry - April 2016

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