Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 3/11/16


Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ken.) this week lent Senate support for a bill designed to make it easier for small farms and ranches to expand their local market reach.

The PRIME (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption) Act is identical to a bill from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ken.) and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) introduced in the House last summer. That bill now has 20 co-sponsors in the House.

The bill would allow states to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat directly to consumers as well as to both foodservice and retail outlets. Current law exempts custom slaughter of animals from federal inspection regulations, but only if the meat is slaughtered for personal, household, guest and employee use.

An exemption already exists for commercial poultry companies but not for red meat producers.

That means that to sell individual cuts of "locally raised" meats to consumers, farmers and ranchers must first send their animals to one of a limited number of USDA-inspected slaughterhouses – sometimes hundreds of miles away – adding transportation costs and increasing the chance that meat raised locally will be co-mingled with conventionally produced meat, Massie said.

The introduction of companion legislation in the Senate boosts the prospect of moving the PRIME Act to President Obama's desk.

"Small farmers sometimes just don't have access to USDA inspected processors without driving hours each way. It's just not practical or economical and discourages local production of sustainable meat," said said Pingree, who raises grass-finished beef on her Maine farm.

"North American Meat Institute members care about the wholesomeness of the food products they market to American consumers. Federal Inspection, or state inspection compliant with the same standards, plays a vital role in ensuring that outcome," according to NAMI, which opposes the bill. "Food safety standards should not be compromised for the convenience of a market segment."

Still, the lack of USDA-inspected slaughter facilities continues to be a major concern for small producers. “The rise of the 'foodie’ movement in the past 10 years or so has driven growth of many small farms of all kinds in Maine," Tori Lee Jackson, an extension educator with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension says.

She admits that Maine isn’t unique in the lack of USDA-inspected facilities. The entire Northeast, from New York to Maine, is lacking in federally inspected slaughterhouses.

A 2003 livestock and slaughter feasibility study prepared for the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation found that the majority of farms in a survey of 600 reported producing and processing very small numbers of livestock: Forty-two percent of New Hampshire farms sold or slaughtered 30 or fewer broilers and layers per year. Some producers trekked 300 miles to the nearest USDA-inspected facility, with the average trip clocking in at 53 miles to a federal facility. Not surprisingly, the need for more USDA-inspected facilities topped the list of comments by respondents.

A 2005 feasibility study prepared by the Greater Portland Council of Governments in southern Maine found that several factors – including a high cost of production compared to that in other regions and few funding programs that support start-up farms – have worked against local producers despite the explosion in diversified farms where production, processing and retail sales are all under one roof.

"The PRIME ACT would help lift some of the federal barriers that aren’t always necessary for small farmers who may raise a few cows to feed their families or neighbors," Pingree said.

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