It would provide access to local meat, cheaper prices, and probably save a number of NH farmers from going under.

Right now, all meat sold in the US must go through a USDA-inspected facility. NH does not have enough space at its (only) 4 USDA-inspected facilities to handle the livestock raised here. So livestock must be shipped long distances, in all kinds of weather, entailing high costs and being harmful to the animals, simply to be allowed to sell the meat legally.

This bill would allow small farmers to butcher (on the farm or at a local, custom slaughterhouse) and sell up to 3 cows or 5 pigs or 10 sheep or goats per month to local customers, without going through a USDA-inspected facility. Local customers would know where their meat came from (impossible today) and could choose to purchase from the farmer of their choice.

New Hampshire would be the first state to do this. It would be a challenge to federal, USDA control of meat sales—yet it is necessary given the stranglehold the international meatpacking industry, a near monopoly, has on meat sales in the US and globally.

USDA inspections are no guarantee of meat quality. There is a shortage of inspectors. And food was never intended by the Founders to be regulated in Washington.

USDA inspections have become the mechanism that guarantees meat shortages, high prices, and the destruction of local farm economies.

IPAK-EDU is grateful to Meryl’s CHAOS letter (Critical Health Analysis and OpinionS) as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More