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Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 10:34:03 AM PDT
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| Food and Water Watch just released a report called Where's the Local Beef? that explains how a shrinking number of small slaughterhouses and processing facilities is keeping farmers from producing enough sustainable meat to satisfy customer demand. That sounds similar to stories I've heard in my own town... The customers are here, hungry for local, sustainable meat... The farmers are here, the have live animals... and yet, there's often no good way to transform the live animals into meat that consumers or restaurants can buy. |
| Jill Richardson :: Where's the Local Beef? Good Luck Finding It Says New Report |
From a F&WW Press Release on the report:
"The decline of small slaughter and processing operations in the U.S. is part of a general trend in agriculture toward the industrial model of food production," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "A variety of public policies, including USDA food safety regulations, economic development programs and rules governing livestock markets must change in order to level the playing field for small meat plants."
As you read some key findings of the report (below) let me give you a recent example I heard from a small San Diego salumi business. Knight Salumi offers gourmet, locally processed meat products. In order to operate, they had to build an office (with internet access) for a USDA inspector, and he has to be present at all times when they are processing meat. I think they need to pay for him to be there too. That's a lot to ask of a small business, especially as it just starts up.
- Small slaughter and processing operations have been closing across the country because of industry consolidation, low profit margins, the complexities of federal regulation and difficulty disposing of slaughter byproduct.
- Small slaughter operators are expected to adhere to a regulatory framework that is biased toward large, corporate facilities that can afford the expensive techniques and equipment now incorporated into government inspection requirements.
- Changes to USDA's meat inspection program to help rebuild local meat processing infrastructure that include providing resources for small plants such as generic food safety plans, performing microbiological testing based on the volume of production and conducting investigations to find the source of contamination when it is first detected at small plants that do not slaughter animals.
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