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

The farmer's market in my area says NO CASH ACCEPTED! But I love how one restaurant that does curb service is saying CASH ONLY. War on cash people, trying to say it is dirty money! GRRRR

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).

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 can spray it with Lysol. Or rubbing alcohol. Round up or down on dollars and cut down on change.

Yes, this damndemic is a globalists dream. We have to outrun them.

Wow, good work Massie!

Be great if this whole COVID shit blew up in their faces by people realizing they can buy food locally and cook at home instead of going to the corporate owned grocery store and corporate owned restaurants for their food.

I love farmers market.

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.

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).

Farmers markets will become illegal due to social distancing requirements.

Farmers markets will become illegal due to social distancing requirements.

We need more local butcher shops. Are local butchers allowed to purchase meat directly from a farm, or must it come from a USDA inspected slaughterhouse?

Funny. Just finished writing up a Direct Trade resolution for our local county and this article pops into view.

There is no doubt at all that a food shortage is going to hit very soon. We have to get in front of this and thwart the agenda. The lock down has been bad enough, let's take back our right to eat food grown by people in our own area. ASAP.

Very short article, small excerpt:



Last month, Florida farmers let countless tons of produce rot in their fields after the restaurants, theme parks and cruise lines they normally serve this time of year were suddenly closed due to nationwide quarantines.

This month, they are changing their business model, selling directly to the consumers who are doing a whole lot more home-cooking these days.

[link to returntonow.net (secure)]

Don't want to give away too much but if you drive out in the middle, you can buy honey on the honor system by leaving cash.. Also.. In my city, a woman would come twice a week to sell goats milk in the back pkg lot of the health food store because the Gov pigs don't allow it to be sold in the stores. I really miss people who care. Hopefully they'll come back and we contribute in our own way by making sure they're safe.

Locally we have a couple of butcher shops. One- I don’t know where their meat comes from. I THINK local farmers but couldn’t swear the o I.

Another one has no cutting room, so I don’t know where the meat is cut and packaged but I know it’s not from the likes of places like Smithfield or Tyson.

Most likely one is a real, honest to goodness old fashioned butcher. He butchers local farmer’s beef and pork. Right now he’s got such a backlog he can’t even keep up! We drove by yesterday and there were about 20 or 30 some cows just milling around. That’s how many he’s got waiting to slaughter. Very high backlog. I’ve never seen so many in his pen.

So bottom line, we know many farmers and cattlemen. We will be able to get beef, chicken and (some) pork, as well as venison if we need it. I LOVE living in the country!!

They are already open here in MI. They just got rid of arts/crafts/music and changed the layout. One direction, traffic limited, no touching, point at what you want, etc.

Awesome. Country is best!

I remember going to Germany when I was 12 and my German stepmom would look for the butcher shop in town, because usually right next door was a restaurant, with the freshest and most wholesome food.

I'm with you. There's magic there!