Do federal inspection rules make it hard for meat consumers to 'eat local'?
Easing federal inspection requirements could help open markets for small-scale meat producers and offer more locally-sourced alternatives for consumers. Legislators and advocates say coronavirus-related supply disruptions and higher prices underscore the impact of the concentration of the meat industry, which they argue the federal inspection rules help to sustain.
In many parts of the country there are few facilities allowed to process meat for retail or restaurant sale because of the limited number of required federal inspectors or state-level equivalents. Small-scale farmers spend time and money transporting their animals to approved slaughterhouses. Since 2015, two Congressmen have been pushing a bill to relax regulations, allowing farmers to sell within their home state meat processed at local facilities not subject to the inspection rules.
