Ever wonder why local food is more expensive, harder to come by, and often has to be ordered long in advance? While there are many parts to the problem, when it comes to meat, one of the biggest is the lack of local butchers and processors. And why are there so few? The federal meat inspection system.
For around six decades, farmers and homesteaders across the US have faced a growing problem – the lack of accessible and affordable butchering options. Starting in the late 60s, changes to federal regulations lead to the loss of tens of thousands of abbatoirs and butcher shops across the country.
By the late 1990s, five or so companies controlled roughly 80% of beef, turkey, chicken, and pork consumed in the United States.
As the real food movement picked up steam, those trying to meet consumer demand met (and continued to met) a problem: There isn’t enough butchers and processors. Oftentimes, you have to schedule a year in advance for animals you don’t even have yet to get on a butcher’s calendar. Some farmers are traveling two or three hundred miles, each direction, to get animals processed. The cost to open a new, USDA inspected butcher shop is immense – multiple millions of dollars.
So farmers and those wanting real, local food suffer through long waits and increased prices.
Congressman Thomas Massie saw this situation and with the help of others, came up with a solution.
What if states could opt out of the federal meat program and allow folks to use whatever butcher they wanted within their state and set whatever rules for such sales? What if farmers could even butcher on farm again, like they did just sixty or so years ago?
This week, we have an opportunity to help make the first real change to the US meat system in six decades – the PRIME Act.
The act is simple – it allows states to opt out of the federal inspection program and allow folks in their state to directly buy and sell to one another under whatever standards the state wants to enact.
While the PRIME Act has never had a greater chance to pass, WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Your representative in congress needs to hear from YOU Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning that you support the PRIME Act and want them to cosponsor and vote for its addition to the farm bill.
And we need you to help spread the word to others in your district to join you in helping break the meat monopoly in America (4-5 companies control 80%+ of all beef, chicken, turkey, and pork consumed in America because of regulations that keep farmers and homesteaders from being able to feed their neighbors and communities).
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Care About Food Freedom? Here are Actions to Take TODAY…
The PRIME Act [House Resolution 2814 (H.R. 2814) and Senate Bill 907 (S.907)], needs co-sponsors and support from your representative and senators. Congress members report that they generally receive less than TEN CALLS about any particular bill or issue. Your phone calls and getting a few friends to call can make a major difference with regards to local meat and real food.
Meet with your U.S. legislators or their staffer from their offices
Tap the links below to see who has cosponsored the bills:
HR2814 – https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2814/cosponsors
S.907 – https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/907/all-info
You can look up who represents you at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
And https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm or call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
If you aren’t able to meet with your legislators, call and/or email your U.S. Representative and both your U.S. Senators and ask them to sign onto HR 2814 / S907.
It is best to call and leave a message and then follow up with a short email.
TALKING POINTS
1. Passage of the PRIME Act would better enable farmers to meet booming demand for locally produced meat. Right now in parts of the country, farmers have to book a slaughterhouse slot as much as 1-1/2 to 2 years out. Moreover, farmers often have to transport their animals several hours to a slaughterhouse, increasing their expenses and stressing out the animals which could affect the quality of the meat. Passage of the PRIME Act would significantly increase access to local slaughterhouses.
2. Passage of the PRIME Act would improve food safety. Anywhere from 95% to 99% of the meat produced in the U.S. is slaughtered in huge facilities that process 300–400 cattle an hour. It is difficult to have quality control in the plant under those conditions no matter how many inspectors are present. The records bear this out. According to CDC statistics from 2005–2020, there were thousands of foodborne illness from the consumption of beef and pork. The big plants process more animals in a day than a custom house would in a year. There is better quality control in a custom slaughterhouse, inspector or no inspector. A 2020 FOIA request to USDA, seeking the number of foodborne illnesses from 2012 to 2020 attributed to the consumption of meat slaughtered and processed at a custom facility received a response from USDA that it had no record of any such illnesses. Custom operators have every incentive to process clean meat. Where a lawsuit against a big plant is just a cost of doing business, one lawsuit can easily shut down a custom house.
3. Passage of the PRIME Act would improve food security. Supply chain breakdowns and labor shortages have made the food supply more vulnerable. Passage of the PRIME Act would improve food security by increasing the local supply of quality meat, food that for most of us is critical for a healthy diet.
4. Passage of the PRIME Act would not be competition to the conventional meat industry; the meatpacker and small farms have mostly different markets. One sells mainly into the export market and big supermarket chains; the other sells into local communities direct to consumers and small mom-and-pop stores.
5. Passage of the PRIME Act would keep more of the food dollar in the state and community. The big food corporations send much of the money they earn out of the state; more of the money that local farmers, ranchers and custom house operators earn would circulate within the state and community, strengthening the local economy.
MORE BACKGROUND
Current law provides that the sale of meat is legal only if the animal is slaughtered and processed at a facility under state or federal inspection; “inspection” in this context means that an inspector is present when slaughtering or processing take place. This requirement went into effect due to Congress passing the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967, disastrous legislation that has been largely responsible for the formation of oligopolies in the beef and pork industries. Custom slaughter and processing facilities do not require that an inspector be present, but only the owners of the animals are allowed to receive the meat slaughtered and processed at custom houses. The sale of custom meat is illegal. The PRIME Act would lift the federal ban on the sale of custom meat. Custom facilities would still be subject to federal and state regulations, including inspection; however, inspectors would no longer have to be on site at custom facilities during slaughtering and processing of animals for meat sales to be legal in intrastate commerce.
To see the previous WAPF alert from which the above is adapted from,
https://www.westonaprice.org/tell-congressmen-to-cosponsor-the-prime-act/#gsc.tab=0
Much thanks to Pete Kennedy and John Moody for all the work on this as well. Image may be NSFW.
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