Drive a hundred miles away from Chicago, Illinois and you could easily find yourself in another state.  Conscientious supporters of local food trying to adhere to a 100 mile diet could easily find themselves buying from small farmers in Wisconsin, Ohio, or Michigan.  It seems crazy then that those farmers couldn't ship their meat into Chicago. But if the meat was processed by a plant that was inspected by state employees (instead of USDA inspectors) it cannot be sold across state lines.  And these frequently smaller state-inspected plans are often used by independent, small farmers.  Conundrum, no?

Enter Congress, the 2007 Farm Bill, and big, big controversy in the sustainable ag community.

Food & Water Watch has fought for years for stronger food safety standards, especially federal meat inspection.  We understand the obstacles that small livestock producers face in getting their animals to market and don’t want food safety rules to favor large companies over the little guy.  And like most people examining the current state of our food supply, we think it’s obvious that consumers would be better off if more sustainable, independent livestock producers could get their products into more markets.

BUT… we don’t support the measure in the farm bill to allow meat from plants that are inspected by state governments instead of the USDA to cross state lines.  Why?  Because as the language stands right now it would do far more damage than good.  There are several specific things in the bill that go way overboard and put consumer safety at risk:

•  The bill covers much more than “small” plants.  The bill would allow any meat plant with up to 50 employees under state inspection to ship its products across state lines.  This means that 80 percent of plants currently under USDA inspection could switch to state inspection.  Instead of creating a system for truly small producers and processors to have access to the marketplace, this proposal could radically change food safety requirements for 80 percent of the industry.
• The bill would let meat plants switch back and forth between state and federal inspection every 4 years.  Besides creating a logistical (and funding) nightmare for both the states and the feds, this opens the door for meat companies to “shop around” for more sympathetic regulators if they are having quality or safety problems.
• Not all state inspection programs are created equal – and not all of them are equal to USDA inspection.  Federal courts and investigators at the USDA have documented problems in several state programs that amount to their inspection being weaker than USDA's.  But rather than require each state to be evaluated individually to see if it is up to snuff, this bill would make all of them eligible for interstate shipment at the same time.

We need to find ways for small meat plants and the sustainable livestock producers they serve to get into more markets.  A great start would be by making sure that USDA had enough inspectors to get to every plant that needs inspection by filling vacant positions that have plagued the agency for years and possibly working cooperatively with states to use state employees to enforce federal standards (a wonky, but important, distinction from the farm bill proposal.)

The language in the farm bill might be well-intentioned, but it doesn’t get it right.  Tell them so here.