FL Farmers Selling Directly to Consumers--We all MUST Do This Now!

great post, op. thanks. 5 stars and green

Its about damn time! Lets hope the fda stays outta this for a change.

Been doing that for years. It became obvious to any thinking individual that unless one is involved with corporate agriculture, selling to a processor is stupid. But at that stage, they should look into owning the processor.

anyone need a tomato plant. $1 each.

Thanks for the

Farmers markets will become illegal due to social distancing requirements.

Farmers Markets are the way to go! We have to support our small family farms which are under constant attack.

They won't, food needs to go through the proper supply chain, or else they will get harassed.

I hear ya!

We do that as much as possible as well, but seriously, if we can get in front of actual commercial supply chain shortages through being smart enough to eat what we want, we can stick a major stick in the wheels of tyranny they have planned for us.

Organized and functioning very well since a few years, over here. Including freshly caught fish. :)

Farmer's markets aren't on the list of lockdown exceptions in my state.

I have some concern about that. Thinking of setting up a private location with some PPE in position...Plexi shields, etc.

It's just a matter of licensing.
Many farmers markets follow rules, which make sure there isn't price gouging and clean facilities that are safe for the public.

Even Facebook has local farmer groups the offer products. Often I will go directly to a farm and pick up products, they are fresher than stores who lose that freshness in transport.

Not if they are outside. Also, my local market is already doing contactless curbside. Place an order to pick up a few days later. They will be fine. It's food and considered essential

2 of the farms I went to last week had PPE in place. U-pick berry farms are also taking precautions.

This is great! I saw a farmer selling stuff out of the back of his truck in a closed restaurant a few weeks ago. He told me he had been taking orders online. Now, I know where to get fresh pork from. He did have a few extra dozen eggs I bought. Man, it had been so long since I've had fresh eggs. They were soooo good!

Yep. I've seen a few with to-go boxes, like Hello Fresh, same idea. Online orders, drive by pick up. it's cool.

Shucked some corn this morning and working on beans right now - both from a local farmer here in Central Florida. They are posting on Facebook and selling from a flatbed trailer.

That's how we used to do it here. I rarely bought produce at the grocery.

Looks like Thomas Massie is trying to get our small farms able to sell their cattle too.


[link to twitter.com (secure)]

Farmers are going broke and shelves are going empty. Instead of just granting immunity from (American!) employee lawsuits to foreign owned companies, why not put America first? Here’s what the bipartisan bicameral PRIME Act would do:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Laura Lington, 202-225-3465

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, two cattle-raising lawmakers, Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) re-introduced the PRIME (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption) Act to make it easier for small farms and ranches to serve consumers. The PRIME Act (H.R. 2859/S. 1620) would give individual states freedom to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat such as beef, pork, or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, and grocery stores.

“Consumers want to know where their food comes from, what it contains, and how it’s processed. Yet, federal inspection requirements make it difficult to purchase food from trusted, local farmers,” said Rep. Massie, who owns 50 head of cattle. “It is time to open our markets to give producers the freedom to succeed and consumers the freedom to choose.”

“In order for local farms to compete, they need scale-appropriate regulations. It’s not realistic to ask a local farmer in Maine to drive hours to get to a USDA-inspected processing facility and turn a profit,” said Rep. Pingree, who has been an organic livestock farmer for nearly 40 years. “The PRIME Act will help change federal regulations to make it easier to process meat locally—helping farmers scale up and give consumers what they so clearly want.”

Current law exempts custom slaughter of animals from federal inspection regulations, but only if the meat is slaughtered for personal, household, guest, and employee use (21 U.S.C. § 623(a)). This means that in order to sell individual cuts of locally-raised meats to consumers, farmers and ranchers must first send their animals to one of a limited number of USDA-inspected slaughterhouses. These slaughterhouses are sometimes hundreds of miles away, which adds substantial transportation cost, and also increases the chance that meat raised locally will be co-mingled with industrially-produced meat. The PRIME Act would expand the current custom exemption and allow small farms, ranches, and slaughterhouses to thrive.

Massie, a rancher, owns 50 head of cattle on his off-the-grid farm in northeast Kentucky. Pingree raises grass-fed beef and chickens on her island farm in North Haven, Maine. Original co-sponsors of the PRIME Act include Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA), John Garamendi (D-CA), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Scott Perry (R-PA), Justin Amash (R-MI), Mark Meadows (R-NC), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Steve King (R-IA), and Mark Green (R-TN).

NC/SC chicken farmers are also selling live chickens as backyard gardening is catching on.

Very good link. I'm going order some things from Farmers near me.

Last Edited by SouthSide on 05/03/2020 10:59 AM

Thanks for posting this!

I've been saying it on other threads for a while now. Buy local! We are heading out in a few hours to a farm/ranch here in central Florida to buy a 1/4 cow, chicken, etc. Yes, it's a little pricey but grass fed and oh so tasty! Ground beef at publix is outrageous. I won't pay those prices..newp!

Oh yum!! I can't wait to get fresh corn. I'm in SE GA so we should be getting it soon. I'll have to look on Facebook.

plant winter squash now! acorn, butternut, pumpkin!

This is really interesting. Because "city people" don't know how to eat if not for grocery stores.

The whole principle of grocery stores is a middle-man system, to take a cheap product (from the farm) and make a profit on it by consolidating the raw material in a big box warehouse location for convenience to the consumer. Feeds the cycle of skimming money as a job.

Why aren't cars sold from the factory? No, they are sent to a showroom so the middle men can make money. Stock brokers, they hold your money so they can make money. Lots of people make a living off of skimming. I hate it.

You're so lucky that it's warm there and food is in season. We can't get out of the cold weather pattern and are still expected to get days dipping into the 30's next week.

But we do have alot of hog farms and there will be no pork shortage here judging by all the online postings for fresh pork.

Indeed.

First because it's delicious.
Second because this situation is going to get worse.

Yeah i made a thread saying farmers should do this and was heavily ridiculed.

Probably by the non native glp shills

That PRIME act is needed, I read a long article somewhere about how the organic farmer would truck his animals to the USDA slaughterhouse, but when he would get the meat back it wasn't the meat from his animals, no surprise.

It was a big issue because be was raising animals organically on contract for people with chemical sensitivities.

Last Edited by Vision Thing on 05/03/2020 11:05 AM

We've got a long time until fresh corn is available here.

I'm doing the resolution for ALL food. When my other peeps sign off on it, I will make it available to others.

We do NOT need to ask permission to buy directly from each other. But some people have mobility issues, so I am trying to take that into account.

Glad Massie is trying to do some positive stuff. But having run some legislation....It's a nightmare and next to impossible to get a clean bill through.