The most important legislation for the local food movement that has been before Congress the past eight years has been the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act, known as the PRIME Act; in this current session, the bill has been introduced as House Resolution 2814 (HR 2814) [1] and Senate Bill 907 (S. 907) [2]. The PRIME Act would allow states to pass laws legalizing the sale of custom slaughtered and processed meat in intrastate commerce; the lack of slaughterhouse infrastructure throughout most of the U.S. is the biggest weakness of the local food system. Under current law, only the owners of an animal can receive the meat slaughtered and processed at a custom facility; only meat from an animal slaughtered and processed at a federal- or state-inspected facility can be sold.

The PRIME Act would amend the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 (WMA), the legislation that established these requirements. Unless you are an oligopolist, the WMA has been a disaster. At the time the act passed into law, there were around 9,600 slaughterhouses in the U.S. [3];  the country’s population at the time was around 200 million. Today there are between 2,800 and 2,900 slaughterhouses [4] in the country and the current U.S. population is around 335 million. Four companies now control over 80% of beef processing in the U.S., and four companies control over 60% of pork processing [5].

There has never been a better chance to pass this bill than now. Congress is currently in the process of writing up the 2023 Farm Bill. The PRIME Act has a legitimate chance to be included in the Farm Bill; it has much less chance to pass as a standalone. Giving the bill momentum was a congressional hearing in June that the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust held titled, “Where’s the Beef? Regulatory Barriers to Entry and Competition in Meat Processing” [6]; the PRIME Act was a focus of the hearing. Farmer/slaughterhouse owner Joel Salatin testified on how it could be a solution to the difficulties small farmers and ranchers have in meeting demand for local meat with the current laws in place that favor the big meatpackers.

Congressman Thomas Massie, a cattle farmer representing Kentucky’s 4th district, is the lead sponsor for HR 2814 as he has been since he first introduced the PRIME Act in 2015. Adding more urgency to the need to have the legislation included in the 2023 Farm Bill is a statement Massie made in a Washington Post interview earlier this year, indicating that he might serve only one more term [7], meaning he wouldn’t be around when the next Farm Bill would be deliberated in 2028. There is no one in Congress who would put in anywhere near the time and resources to pass the PRIME Act that Massie has; neither is there anyone who has the expertise on the matter that he does.

To say passage of the PRIME Act is badly needed is a huge understatement. Demand for locally produced meat is booming, but it is difficult for farmers and ranchers to meet that demand with the lack of access to slaughterhouses under inspection. Right now in parts of the country, farmers have to book a slaughterhouse slot as much as 1-1/2 to 2 years in advance. Moreover, farmers often have to transport their animals several hours to an inspected slaughterhouse, increasing their expenses and stressing out the animals which could affect the quality of the meat. The majority of livestock farmers live closer to a custom slaughterhouse than an inspected slaughterhouse.

Aside from better enabling farmers to meet the demand for local meat, passage of the PRIME Act could begin the long-overdue process of decentralizing meat production in the U.S.  According to USDA data from 2022 [8], 52 federally inspected slaughterhouses account for around 93% of the cattle slaughtered in the U.S.; 60 federally inspected facilities account for nearly 98% of the hogs slaughtered in the country. This centralization along with the supply chain breakdowns and labor shortages of the past few years has made the meat supply more vulnerable as well as leading to a decline in quality. It’s likely that passage of the PRIME Act would initially impact a fraction of 1% of meat production, but its revival of the community abattoir would improve food security through increased self-sufficiency at the local level.

Massie said several years ago that he knew of 1,000 shuttered slaughterhouses in the country whose owners would re-open if the PRIME Act became law; the owners did not want to run a business if an inspector was present each time they were slaughtering animals (government regulators typically inspect a custom house only once or twice a year). The owners did not believe they could generate enough revenue operating under laws prohibiting the sale of meat slaughtered and/or processed at a custom facility.

The only argument the opposition to HR 2814 has is food safety, but the data shows they don’t even have that. In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Texas nonprofit Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA), the USDA acknowledged that between 2012 and 2020 there were no cases of foodborne illness due to the consumption of custom slaughtered and processed meat [9]. By contrast, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) between 2005 and 2020, over 6,000 cases of foodborne illness were attributed to beef and pork consumption [10]; the likelihood is that all or nearly all that meat was slaughtered in big USDA facilities that process 300-400 cattle per hour. The big plants process more animals in a day than a custom house would in a year. There is better quality control in a custom facility, inspector or no inspector.

A key part of food safety is traceability–another advantage meat from a custom house has over meat from one of the big USDA facilities. A hamburger in the industrial food system could come from hundreds of cattle raised in multiple states and countries; a hamburger from a custom facility is going to be from one cow.

Increasing the amount of locally produced meat available for consumption would not only benefit food security and food safety but also human health and the economy. With passage of the PRIME Act, there would be less money spent on, and less demand for, resources of the healthcare system—freeing up money to be spent in more productive areas of the economy. The records on foodborne illness outbreaks indicate that a higher percentage of people per serving who consume meat produced by the big plants of the conventional industry cost the healthcare system more money than the people who obtain locally produced meat from small farmers and ranchers. The likelihood is also that people who purchase locally produced meat place less demand for resources on the medical system in the treatment of chronic disease then do those who buy their meat from the industrial system.

Beyond the deterioration of quality the centralization of meat production has caused, there is another development in the conventional industry making passage of the PRIME Act imperative: the production and marketing of alternative proteins, such as cell-cultured meat and insects. Industry has spent billions in the development of alternative proteins even though there is little or no demand for them—with two of the major meatpackers, Tyson and Cargill, being investors. The question is: what will the ruling establishment do to help industry get a return on its investment? Will it involve enforcing policies that will make animal proteins less available? The best response to the ruling elites’ plans is to build out a parallel food system as independent of federal control as possible; a robust slaughterhouse infrastructure will be a centerpiece of that system. The PRIME Act will be a catalyst in making that happen–moving the system towards a day when the local abattoir will once again dot the countryside.‍

References‍

[1]  U.S. Congress. (2023). House Resolution 2814. [PDF]. Introduced April 25, 2023. PDF accessed at https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2814/text‍

[2]  U.S. Congress. (2023). Senate Bill 907. [PDF]. Introduced March 22, 2023. PDF accessed at https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/907/text

[3] USDA, Statistical Reporting Service Crop Reporting Board. (1969). Annual Livestock Slaughter, April 1969. [PDF] “Table 20 – Number of Livestock Slaughtering Establishments, March 1, 1967, 1968, 1969”, p. 35. PDF accessed at https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/r207tp32d

[4] USDA, National Agriculture Statistics Service. (2023). Livestock Slaughter 2022 Summary (April 2023). [PDF]. [Table – “Livestock Slaughter Plants by Type of Inspection – States and United States: January 1, 2022 and 2023″ Inspected Percent of Total Commercial Slaughter by Species, Month, and Total – United States: 2022 and 2021 Total”, p. 62]. PDF accessed at https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/r207tp32d

[5] James, H.S., Hendrickson, M.K., and Howard, P.H. (2012, February). Networks, Power and Dependency in the Agrifood Industry. Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics Working Paper. College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources: University of Missouri. Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2004496 (Accessed: 7 September 2023). [See  “Table 1 – Concentration ratios and dominant firms for selected agrifood sector”, p. 32]

[6] Forbes Breaking News. (2023, June 13). ‘Where’s The Beef?’: Thomas Massie Leads House Judiciary Committee Hearing On Meat Industry. [Video]. YouTube.com. https://youtu.be/jky4-J-Tsc0?si=qfEkqL2BsH9rATQF‍

[7] Will, G.F. (2023, June 22). “Meet the implacable, off-the-grid libertarian working to energize Congress”. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/21/kentucky-republican-thomas-massie-congressional-plan/‍

[8] USDA, National Agriculture Statistics Service. (2023). Livestock Slaughter 2022 Summary (April 2023). [PDF]. [calculated from tables on pp. 8 and 61]. PDF accessed at https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/r207tp32d‍

[9] USDA. (2020, June 25). [Foodborne illness from custom meat]. FOIA response, 2020-FSIS-00397-F.

[10] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2021, May 26). Access® database for outbreaks reported from 2005 to 2020 from all transmission sources (food, water, animal contact, environmental, and person-to-person) [Data set]. Provided by Hannah Lawinger, CDC NORS Data Request Manager.

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The ordeal of the investigation has led the owners of French Broad Farm, Earl and Cheri Cruze, to shut down their herd share operation, a huge loss for the local food community in the Knoxville area. Earl Cruze, 75 years young, has milked cows for 68 years and has always been the only milker for the herd share. Raw milk drinkers in the metro Knoxville area are now out a source of their sustenance.

The department decided to lift the directive, in part, because according to County Health Director Martha Buchanan, “there is no ongoing transmission” of E. coli; the last illness KCHD connected to the dairy occurred on June 3. Buchanan indicated that the department believed that French Broad Farm was the source of the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria that sickened seven children that drank raw milk the farm produced. Interestingly, at the same time the department was investigating the dairy, it had also determined that at least four children had become ill through E. coli O157:H7 poisoning at a daycare center through direct or indirect contact with farm animals. KCHD’s investigation found no connection between the dairy and the daycare center.

What Buchanan or anyone else with KCHD never did explain was why there were no test results from milk and manure samples the department had collected from the farm over a week earlier. KCHD had gone to the farm to take milk samples on June 5 and manure samples on June 6. In addition, the department also collected an unopened container and opened container of raw milk that were produced on the suspect batch dates of May 24 and May 25.

KCHD originally sent the samples to a Tennessee lab but then on June 11 had them transferred to a more sophisticated laboratory in Iowa.

It only takes lab technicians 48 hours to make a preliminary determination on whether a sample is positive for E. coli O157:H7. Typically, if a sample is positive, a health department or other agency will issue a press release announcing the positive test and will continue with its order prohibiting the producer from distributing the suspect food. The likelihood was that all tests the Tennessee and Iowa labs took of the milk and manure samples were negative for E. coli O157:H7; it’s possible that the department didn’t announce any test results because the Iowa lab was still running tests to find e. coli.

Campylobacter, the pathogen most commonly responsible for outbreaks of foodborne illness attributed to raw milk is rarely found in samples tested in a lab; campylobacter grows and disappears quickly. E.coli, including E. coli O157:H7, is different; e. coli will often continue to grow after a sample is taken to a lab for testing. As a result it would be more likely to have a positive test result for e-coli than campylobacter. While all negative test results wouldn’t necessarily clear French Broad Farm of blame for the illnesses, they are evidence that the dairy is not responsible for the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. The more negative tests the Tennessee and Iowa labs have the greater the evidence the dairy is not responsible for the illnesses. Buchanan did say the department looked for other commonalities among the sick children such as ground beef consumption and swimming pool usage but there are possibly other common activities among the seven children KCHD is unaware of.

Something to look at would be the multi-state foodborne illness outbreak this spring attributed to romaine lettuce contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. There have been five deaths and nearly 200 illnesses in the U.S. blamed on romaine lettuce consumption, including at least three illnesses in Tennessee. From May 16 to June 1, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) identified an additional 25 cases of illness it blamed on romaine lettuce. Reports are that there is a high level of secondary transmissions from the outbreak.

Earl Cruze ran a Grade A operation, Cruze Farm Dairy, for over thirty years. Cruze Farm Dairy is a completely separate operation from French Broad Farm and is now run by Cruze’s daughter Colleen Cruze Bhatti and son-in-law Manjit Bhatti.

The Tennessee herd share law went into effect in 2009. Since that time, herd share programs have thrived in the state; hundreds of dairies have operated herd shares at one time or another in Tennessee. The French Broad Farm investigation marks the second time herd share operations have been blamed for a foodborne illness outbreak in the state.

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CDC accuses Millers Organic Farm of causing raw milk illness

In a recent announcement from the Centers For Disease Control (CDC), they stated that a Multistate Outbreak of Listeriosis was linked to raw milk from Millers Organic Farm in Pennsylvania.

The statement declared, in part, that an elderly woman in Florida had died as a result of Listeria from raw dairy

at Millers Organic Farm. Shortly after this claim from the CDC came out, investigative journalist David Gumpert reported on his blog questioning whether the CDC was engaged in misconduct in issuing that premature release and that the woman who died was being treated for advanced cancer—not listeria.

The Weston A. Price Foundation issued a release vindicating Millers Organic Farm as the source of the problem, showing the lack of real evidence from the CDC and that the family’s story did not support the CDC claims.

When stories like the CDC’s claim are issued, it gives a distortion of the facts that leads to manipulation of the data. Rather than seeking scientific results that prove what was behind the illness, the CDC reported on it as fact, giving false data to the statistics surrounding raw milk—statistics that will likely not be set right by the CDC.

Meanwhile, thousands of people continue to consume raw milk, including milk from Millers Organic Farm, will no ill effect. According to the WAPF press release,

“The FDA has spent years aggressively warning people against drinking raw milk with the claim that it causes hundreds more foodborne illness outbreaks than pasteurized milk. Yet, there have been no cases of listeriosis attributed to raw milk consumption going back forty years, or more. Unlike raw milk, pasteurized dairy has been linked to several deaths in the past ten years.

Prior to the false claim from the CDC, there have been no reported illnesses associated with Miller’s Organic Farm in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania.

“This recent release from the CDC is a deliberate attempt to tarnish raw milk and present false and defamatory information,” says Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education non-profit based in Washington, DC. “This is a witch-hunt against raw milk. This is clearly not a case of illness associated with raw milk, but rather an agency with an agenda.”

The CDC recommends that people “drink and eat only pasteurized dairy products (including soft cheese, ice cream, and yogurt).”

“This is a weak attempt to shut down people’s choices,” says Pete Kennedy, president of the Farm-to-consumer Legal Defense Fund. “It shows this bureaucracy is getting more desperate in trying to stop the growing demand for raw milk.”

To learn more about raw milk and other nutrient dense foods, visit westonaprice.org

Raw milk produced on Millers Organic Farm is not the cause of illness in a Florida victim

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This was one of the largest food safety scandals in Chinese history, and serves as an example of how imperative it is to stay away from processed foods and instead build a diet with natural, wholesome foods.

Now Chinese scientists have discovered a new, faster, simpler and more reliable test that will detect melamine in milk – in hopes of making it more difficult for farmers and dairy producers to get away with this crime. After learning that gold nano-particles (AuNPs) bond easily with melamine, the researchers were able to devise a test using just AuNPs and a UV-Vis spectrophotometer to watch for a color change in the solution. This on-site test takes about 15 minutes from start to finish and can detect melamine levels as low as two parts per million.

Support the Campaign for Real Milk, join the Weston A. Price Foundation, today!

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A local blogger wrote about her thoughts on the unfolding events and was surprised when, shortly thereafter, the mother of one of the ill children contacted her on Facebook. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, provided a backstory on her family’s raw milk consumption and timing of events, including why she herself was hesitant to believe that raw milk was the certain cause of her son’s illness.

“My son was diagnosed with a parasite (cryptosporidium) after having severe gastro for 10 days.  I was told that raw milk was a possible cause.  We had also visited a farm, picked up and cuddled chickens, cats and dogs from this farm and swam in a pool…all also possible risk factors for this parasite. If I could get closure on this and know for sure that it was the milk, it would give me some peace…but I am not convinced,” she wrote.

In this case, it is possible that raw milk was the cause of illness but it is not certain – and for the media and members of the public to rush to judgment without any conclusive evidence is inflammatory and threatens rational conversation about the reform of raw milk in Victoria and elsewhere.

Realmilk.com is a consumer education project of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Visit their website, westonaprice.org.

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“Some people got sick who didn’t drink the milk,” says Diana Reed, whose farm supplied the milk.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, a total of 38 people fell ill following the team dinner and 26 of those illnesses stemmed from the bacteria Campylobacter jejuni. This same strain of bacteria was found in some of the manure of the cows at Reed’s farm.

However, Reed points out that Campylobacter is commonly found in all cows in Wisconsin and no Campylobacter was found in the farm’s bulk tank, which was tested 6 days after the outbreak.

Furthermore, this particular strain of Campylobacter is also found in chicken, which was also served at the team dinner. At the dinner, 56 people ate chicken and 38 got sick; 43 people drank the milk and 33 got sick. This leaves 5 people who did not drink the milk but still had Campylobacter.

“We’ve had four boys in football in Durand through the last eight years. I’ve lived and breathed Durand football. This was the last thing I would ever want to be involved in – making a football team sick,” says Reed.

The Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education non-profit based in Washington, D.C. Fan the Campaign for Real Milk on Facebook.

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