Meat Processing
Situation Critical

This week, from Tuesday the 13^th, through Friday the 16^th, I urge the citizens of Vermont to phone the legislature in Montpelier. Ask for the Sargent at Arms in the House of Representatives, and ask that Agricultural Committee Chairman David Zuckerman request a hearing on Vermont’s meat processing issues.

For those of you who are not familiar with the crisis, let me outline the existing problems facing Vermont farmers raising meat.

First, the number of processing facilities for beef, pork, sheep and goats is at an all time low in the state. Fresh Farms Beef, responsible for the majority of federally inspected beef, sheep and goats processed in the state, burned to the ground nearly a year ago.

The other inspected facilities are overloaded to the point where there exists a three- to six-month waiting period for slaughter and processing of animals.

Second, the facility in Athol, Mass., just recently burned to the ground, so now, many Vermont farmers are forced to truck animals to the Albany, N.Y. region for slaughter and processing.

Just as critical is the complete lack of state or federally inspected facilities available for other poultry producers in Vermont (Misty Knolls and Cavendish Gamebird do not accept products from farmers outside of their operations). As a result, there is no source for organically or pasture-raised Vermont poultry for restaurants, cooperatives, or grocery stores in the state, though thousands of these birds are raised annually by Vermont farmers.

Individuals can come to the farm directly and purchase poultry slaughtered on the farm, but the same products cannot be sold off-farm.

Urge Chairman Zuckerman to raise these issues and demand a hearing. We need more processing facilities in the state for livestock, and we need an inspected poultry slaughtering facility, so Vermont farmers can provide locally raised poultry to consumers. At the very least, urge the state to consider implementing the existing Federal exemptions, which allow farmers to sell up to 1,000 uninspected birds annually, either on the farm or at farmers markets and farm stands.

Vermont was built on a strong agrarian foundation, and continues to stand upon this to attract tourism and commerce. It’s time for the state to address the shortcomings of her 21^st century agricultural practices so agriculture remains a viable business on the Vermont landscape.

Please call 802-828-2228 and request a meat processing hearing today.

Jennifer Megyesi

Royalton

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