By: Janessa S.

Janessa S. — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 17:08:30 +0000

I get most of my meat from our local butcher shop and my family way prefers that over buy food from Walmart or any other big company, even if it costs just a little bit more. I am happy to see the the government is finally trying to help combat the huge monopoly that the big 4 processing plants have over the industry and are helping support local processors. Supporting smaller processors help support the community and allows people in the area to know where they are getting their meat from. Hopefully this helps combat this terrible problem and give back to communities.

By: Dan Lefever

Dan Lefever — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 15:34:24 +0000

Support the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) act S.907 /H.R.2814, federal legislation to remove the federal ban on intrastate meat sales from custom processors. Under current law meat from a custom processor cannot be sold it can only go to the owner of the animal at time of slaughter. Custom slaughterhouses must meet federal and state regulations and inspections and according to USDA have a 10 year track record of no food safety outbreaks having been reported. The key difference is the requirement to have an inspector onsite constantly during processing to be able to sell “inspected” meat to consumer. This is an undue financial burden for the small local processor to cover; thus causing a huge bottle neck for small livestock farmers to find, schedule and secure affordable processing, as needed, to sell their meat directly to consumers.
Please make you federal senators and represenatives aware of this and ask them to be co-sponsors of the PRIME act and push to include it in the current Farm Bill. It has languished in Congress for 5 years since its introduction by Senator Thomas Massey of TN.

Comments on: Small Processors Face Big Obstacles in Ultra-Consolidated Meat-Packing Industry

By: Janessa S.

By: Dan Lefever