Farmers are allowed to slaughter and butcher bison, elk and red deer that they raise without any inspections, and can sell the meat to their neighbors in New Hampshire. But cows, pigs, sheep and goats are different, even when only 3 cows/month are being slaughtered, or fewer. This does not make sense.

Food-borne illness has not been an issue. USDA inspected facilities are not a guarantee of quality or safe meat, given the size of massive meat processing facilities that butcher thousands of cows per day, and a nationally inadequate numbers of inspectors.

Allowing farmers to transact with their neighbors without having to truck their animals long distances to USDA-inspected facilities, where they might have to wait a year for a spot, and can’t be sure the meat they get back is actually from their animals, is a no-brainer.

In-state meat slaughter and sales were allowed until about 55 years ago, when the federal government (Congress) ruled that intrastate meat sales also required the imprimatur of the USDA. Since then, thousands of small meat processing plants have gone under because you need economies of scale to be most profitable and comply with all the new requirements. To be even more profitable, many employees of the meat packers are illegal immigrants, since the work is dirty, dangerous and poorly paid. During the past 45 years, consolidation in the meatpacking industry has reached crisis levels, with 4 companies controlling 85% of the US beef market.

This enables them to induce scarcity, create bottlenecks, and get paid record prices for less meat. Things have gotten so bad that the US cattle herd is at its lowest level since 1951, and the US has become a net importer of beef. And of food overall. Last year, US food imports exceeded exports by $50 billion dollars. Farmers are going under because they cannot compete with the big guys, with onerous regulations that keep increasing, and with food imports. This bill is a first step in turning that around.

10-15% of all beef, and about 25% of all ground beef sold in the US is imported.

Allowing small farmers to process and sell their own livestock, within reasonable limits and requirements, will help solve the meat affordability crisis, improve available meat quality and freshness, and keep farmers on their farms.

HB 396 passed the NH House on January 7, and was considered by the NH Senate Commerce Committee yesterday, February 10. While HB 396 transgresses federal law which the USDA is charged with enforcing—well, NH is leading the way in State-Federal challenges of all kinds, these days.

A very positive hearing was held, and our team is cautiously optimistic that the bill will pass, and eventually the USDA will find a way to live with it. We are working on that too!

If the link does not open correctly, the hearing for HB396 begins at 2 hrs, 1 minute.