I don't see why we can't ...........

[HDRider]

It is not out of whack. It's the free enterprise system. Can small meat processors feed 300 million people?

Government regulations have exterminated the small processors.

It is anything but "free enterprise".

Exterminated the small processors? Why then are people on here all the time talking about selling sides or quarter sides of beef, or killing a beef to put in the freezer? I've never done it, don't know anything about it other than people on here saying they do it. I know less than nothing about the regulatory side of it. The idea has no appeal to me because it's uneconomical any way you look at it, and previously frozen beef is just not as good as never frozen.

I do know about the regulatory side of it. It is overly burdensome. I think you are talking about processors that process for one's own consumption. Those do not allow me to sell my processed product directly. I would sell a whole cow to someone, and they get it processed. Those are called "custom processors". Those are fewer than days past, but are still around. I am talking about inspected processors.

I don't know how far you have to drive to find an inspected facility, but it is 100 miles one way for me. There used to be some in almost every county. No more. The little guy can't afford to comply. It takes massive scale to spread the cost of compliance across more animals.

Consolidation has contributed to reduced profits for small and mid-size farmers, because with
fewer plants to choose from, farmers have little negotiating power and must take the prices
offered to them. http://agr.wa.gov/fof/docs/MeatProcessing.pdf

In Iowa, there now are 140 or fewer small meat processors, compared to about 450 in the 1960s, said Marcia Richmann, executive director of Iowa Meat Processors Association. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/ ... /24506635/

 

[ga.prime]

It's a competitive market the way I see it. I wish you success, HD.

 

[Nesikep]

Around here you can certainly cut and wrap your own beef.. for your own consumption... Selling by the 1/4 you have to have a provincially inspected facility do the cut and wrap.. Selling by the cut has to be done by a Federally inspected facility. There are some leniencies and/or other regulations depending on the volume slaughtered.

My local butcher says it's pretty much a full time job to do the paperwork and comply with just the provincial regulations.. Add in federal regs and it most certainly is.
Theres the point that kills the smaller packer... Can't afford to pay a guy to do the paperwork all day for the couple head a week they handle.

 

[Anonymous]

All food production is becoming more and more consolidated. Regulations cause most of the consolidation. In the fishing industry, National Marine Fisheries Service picks and chooses who fishes and who doesn't by implementing Limited Entry programs and permits. If you have not fished for certain species in specified years, or didn't produce enough of a species during a time frame, you don't qualify. They also divide up "quota" between fisherman with some species and require dockside buyers to be permitted. All catches must be reported weekly by filling out Trip Tickets. Mess up and you lose your permit and or face fines. It's all but impossible to follow rules 100%. When you go fishing, you are breaking some law. I can see something along those lines happening someday in beef production. I've used a new local custom slaughter house for butchering steers. He has been trying to get Federally inspected but tells me that it's looking to be too burdensome and will cost so much time in paper work and nitpicking that its not worth it. In a "free society", (cough cough) why does government have to tell me where I can/can't buy a piece of beef, chicken, pork, or seafood that I want to eat?

 

[boondocks]

All food production is becoming more and more consolidated. Regulations cause most of the consolidation. In the fishing industry, National Marine Fisheries Service picks and chooses who fishes and who doesn't by implementing Limited Entry programs and permits. If you have not fished for certain species in specified years, or didn't produce enough of a species during a time frame, you don't qualify. They also divide up "quota" between fisherman with some species and require dockside buyers to be permitted. All catches must be reported weekly by filling out Trip Tickets. Mess up and you lose your permit and or face fines. It's all but impossible to follow rules 100%. When you go fishing, you are breaking some law. I can see something along those lines happening someday in beef production. I've used a new local custom slaughter house for butchering steers. He has been trying to get Federally inspected but tells me that it's looking to be too burdensome and will cost so much time in paper work and nitpicking that its not worth it. In a "free society", (cough cough) why does government have to tell me where I can/can't buy a piece of beef, chicken, pork, or seafood that I want to eat?

I look at it a little differently. No one is telling you where you can buy meat. They also aren't preventing you from raising and slaughtering your own food. They are telling people who sell meat to others what they must do in order to meet the legal standards. Here, we can sell a quarter beef (or whole or half) without a bunch of hoops. Packaged individual cuts ("retail") require the extra hoops and licensed inspections, etc.

If the problem is that there's not enough slaughterhouses for the little guys, the little guys need to band together and run one for their collective use. I've read a few articles about small farmers doing that for internet access, and it's got me to thinking....

 

[Anonymous]

All food production is becoming more and more consolidated. Regulations cause most of the consolidation. In the fishing industry, National Marine Fisheries Service picks and chooses who fishes and who doesn't by implementing Limited Entry programs and permits. If you have not fished for certain species in specified years, or didn't produce enough of a species during a time frame, you don't qualify. They also divide up "quota" between fisherman with some species and require dockside buyers to be permitted. All catches must be reported weekly by filling out Trip Tickets. Mess up and you lose your permit and or face fines. It's all but impossible to follow rules 100%. When you go fishing, you are breaking some law. I can see something along those lines happening someday in beef production. I've used a new local custom slaughter house for butchering steers. He has been trying to get Federally inspected but tells me that it's looking to be too burdensome and will cost so much time in paper work and nitpicking that its not worth it. In a "free society", (cough cough) why does government have to tell me where I can/can't buy a piece of beef, chicken, pork, or seafood that I want to eat?

I look at it a little differently. No one is telling you where you can buy meat. They also aren't preventing you from raising and slaughtering your own food. They are telling people who sell meat to others what they must do in order to meet the legal standards. Here, we can sell a quarter beef (or whole or half) without a bunch of hoops. Packaged individual cuts ("retail") require the extra hoops and licensed inspections, etc.

If the problem is that there's not enough slaughterhouses for the little guys, the little guys need to band together and run one for their collective use. I've read a few articles about small farmers doing that for internet access, and it's got me to thinking....

Why is "the legal standard" different for a quarter beef (or whole or half) than individual retail cuts? Is it not consumed in the same manner.....by people? FDA is like almost every other Government agency. The agenda is job security and to spend above and beyond their budget so they are likely to receive more funding next year. To accomplish that, more and more rules have to be made...."to protect the public". What was perfectly fine last year isn't good enough this year. If somehow tomorrow there were no FDA, people would take a lot more notice where their food comes from instead of just trusting a bureaucratic agency.

 

[Nesikep]

All food production is becoming more and more consolidated. Regulations cause most of the consolidation. In the fishing industry, National Marine Fisheries Service picks and chooses who fishes and who doesn't by implementing Limited Entry programs and permits. If you have not fished for certain species in specified years, or didn't produce enough of a species during a time frame, you don't qualify. They also divide up "quota" between fisherman with some species and require dockside buyers to be permitted. All catches must be reported weekly by filling out Trip Tickets. Mess up and you lose your permit and or face fines. It's all but impossible to follow rules 100%. When you go fishing, you are breaking some law. I can see something along those lines happening someday in beef production. I've used a new local custom slaughter house for butchering steers. He has been trying to get Federally inspected but tells me that it's looking to be too burdensome and will cost so much time in paper work and nitpicking that its not worth it. In a "free society", (cough cough) why does government have to tell me where I can/can't buy a piece of beef, chicken, pork, or seafood that I want to eat?

I look at it a little differently. No one is telling you where you can buy meat. They also aren't preventing you from raising and slaughtering your own food. They are telling people who sell meat to others what they must do in order to meet the legal standards. Here, we can sell a quarter beef (or whole or half) without a bunch of hoops. Packaged individual cuts ("retail") require the extra hoops and licensed inspections, etc.

If the problem is that there's not enough slaughterhouses for the little guys, the little guys need to band together and run one for their collective use. I've read a few articles about small farmers doing that for internet access, and it's got me to thinking....

When prices were really low here (BSE times) apparently some ranchers did form a cooperative slaughterhouse.. Then they promptly shot themselves in the foot by sending the cull animals there that were getting $20/cwt and the quality stuff went through the auction.. So the plant made nothing but burger and went belly up