The bi-partisan PRIME act would make it much easier to get healthy high quality meat (But Big Food doesn't like that)

Introduced by Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME) the PRIME (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption) Act would…

…give individual states freedom to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat such as beef, pork, or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, and grocery stores…

…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 (21 U.S.C. § 623(a)). This means that in order 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. These USDA-inspected slaughterhouses are sometimes hundreds of miles away from farms and ranches, adding substantial transportation costs and increasing the chances of locally raised meat co-mingling with industrially-produced meat. The PRIME Act would expand the current custom exemption and allow small farms, ranches, and slaughterhouses to thrive.

The USDA slaughterhouse funnel disadvantages smaller meat producers and those who want access to quality locally produced meat. Your editor can attest that fresh cuts, from well cared for livestock can be something very special. But currently such meat is often, too often, prohibitively expensive. It shouldn’t be.

Who is opposing this legislation? Who would oppose more choice for consumers, higher quality meat for consumers, and lower prices for high quality meat?

You guessed it. The giant food companies that basically have partnered with the USDA to keep a tight grip on a marketplace that is crying our for more “artisan” food.

It’s pretty hard to “buy and eat local” when Tyson Foods and the US Government insist that a small farmer ship its meat to a different time zone for processing. For Tyson Foods the current system works. For the small farmer and the consumer the current system is expensive.

And the big meat companies like that.