First, a heads up: my information is based on a website of unknown (to me) provenance. But, it seems plausible, so I’ll pass it along. The Pasture to Plate blog has flagged one impact of Gov. Daniels budget cuts. Basically, one of the cuts is apparently to the Meat and Poultry Inspection Program (MPIP) which is an inspection required for locally grown meats to be sold to individuals or farmers markets or the like.
Dear Friends,
I want you to know the ability of family farmers to provide locally-raised meat to our fellow Hoosiers is being threatened by crippling state budget cuts to the Meat and Poultry Inspection Program (MPIP).
To sell meat at farmers’ markets, or direct to families, or to restaurants or donate to food banks our meat has to be processed at an inspected facility.
. . .
So in short, the federal government is not capable of providing the level of service, accuracy or results that the state government does? Just sounds like another great reason to put the feds in charge of “fixing” health care! Oh, wait….nevermind.
Thanks for pointing this out, Doug!
USDA has been drastically understaffed for years, and tends to focus on the bigger suppliers. I can definitely believe this could have a negative impact on smaller Hoosier farms.
So much for medium rare…
For the past few three years, I have bought 99% of my family’s meat from local growers, and 95% from this farmer, who is located near Terre Haute, and who sells in Indy area Farmers Markets. It is a practice I hope to continue because it provides a level of confidence that we know where our meat came from — no ground beef from 3 or 4 different countries in one package, for example — and it helps enterprising local families and our local rural economy. Other benefits are that the growing practices are sound from a human health standpoint (we consume no extraneous antibiotics through treated meat, for example) and their environmental practices are sound as far as land and soil use and much more. And, important to some, the animals are humanely treated, unlike those raised on and transported through large feedlot operations.
This particular farm family educates us through a wonderful newsletter. We learn of the farm practices and processes, the life of a farm family, the way the animals are bred and raised, and the place of our human food production and consumption in the larger sphere of nature. I cannot tell how much personal benefit I have gained by knowing these things. I often wish more people could be exposed to the information, I find it so educational, entertaining, and sustaining. Maybe it’s because my mom grew up on a (long-gone) small dairy farm.
Anyway, if you don’t presently patronize local farmers, but are even remotely interested in the educational, health, or environmental aspects of this this topic, for yourself or your children, or think you might be in the future, please consider making a phone call or sending an email to help sustain the livelihood of the local farmers who already struggle to make it in this world of big-is-better. Because in this case at least, small is better from just about every way you look at it. .
We recently split a quarter cow with another family. It was my first foray into local, bulk purchasing. It’s grass fed beef, but other than that, I don’t know much about the husbandry. I’m reasonably callous about animals (other than my own pets), but at the end of the day, I think the grass fed beef simply tastes better. And, factory farmed meats are raised in ways that raise my eyebrows, knowing that I am what I eat. Buying in bulk, more or less directly from the farmer, the price seemed comparable to what I’d see in a grocery store. So, I’d recommend it to anyone with a chest freezer.
I decided to add the farm’s website in case anyone is interested in learning more about the philosophy behind small farmers like this one and the realities of sustaining the farms and families. Be sure to click on the Newsletter tab as well as the About tabs.
http://www.royerfarmfresh.com
So, did mitch intend for this to happen, or did he not realize that cuts have latent consequences? Most state, and many local, regulatory actions have been cut back or discontinued because they got in the way of the large corporation farms and feedlots and slaughter houses. Bush gutted the federal regulatory agencies, so we consumers have been left on our own for a long time.
And remember, as you chow down on that grass fed beef, all that crap that is put into the air and water ends up in the root systems and cells of those farm fields of grass, and they soak it all in. I always raised mine on grain and grazing, plus stuff from the garden like pumpkins. MMMM Tasty. And probably full of all kinds of pollutants from the powerplants and factories along the Ohio.
At one time, we paid a premium price for Argentine or Brazillian beef, now we look down our noses as though it is inferior. But we pay big bucks to travel afar and partake of locally prepared traditional meals-probably not inspected nor prepared in sanitary conditions. Yet we survive, as do those natives of Europe or China. We live in a strange, detached world of our own derivation. :)
I think food processing in general is in question.I used to buy food items in dollar stores til I found out that even brand names are rejected quality,so these products belie the brand name.My grand parents used to talk about the local merchants in Wisconin and going to farms directly to buy farm produced products..This would have been before the Food and Drug Law just after turn of century, that is, turn of 19th to 20th century. Theyd find pieces of lard(it weighs more) in the farm churned butter,sawdust in the meat and hair from all sources,some times deliberately packaged in.But they knew who to go to and who not to,but people learned the hard way.The consumer was on his own.
I dont mean to be political,this time anyway,but it’s ‘deja vue’ all over again..I blame the free trade purists who want commerce over comsumer protections and everything has to be kept cheap with profits high and no regulation or socialism that would ‘stifle’ international commerce and profit.And we seem to turn a blind eye to all this stuff coming in from China especially..dry wall that makes people sick in their own homes and no where to turn for redress. China doesnt care so we don’t care.
So it appears we’re going back to 1900 with everyone figuring out who to buy from and who not to…even locally
Brave New World ,or Back to the Future..take your pick.
Americans are used to artificially cheap food prices, brought about by “economies of scale” that have proven also to make food unhealthier and unsafer. Now that these ways are established through marketing and pricing and lobbying, it will be much more difficult to undo the deleterious practices and their effects. Is this the way it’s supposed to be? That it’s more difficult to choose what’s healthy and safe? Of course I believe that people must be responsible for their personal choices, but the deck is stacked against making the healthy and safe choices. In this case at least, the healthy and safe choice is also good for the local Indiana farmers and the local Indiana economy. It’s not as though having this choice of local meat is going to harm the big meat producers and taking it away will help them — I won’t just take my business to the local supersized market with it’s imported and/or untraceable meat products (and some meat products that are really not meat but by-products). I will much more likely drastically reduce or even just stop consuming meat if I can’t verify that it is healthy and safe.
Lou,
But mitch and the bushies and reaganites all claim that it was soooo much better before gubmint regulations. Thanks for reminding me of practices that still take place along the highways when you meet those people selling locally grown foodstuffs, jams, breads and such. The Amish, who produce quality for themselves and try to sell some of it to make ends meet, have problems since their products are not refrigerated properly or processed properly according to FDA regs (state and local also). But if you give them a deer for their larder, they will slaughter the other for free and make you some great cuts of meat and sausage. Hmm. Hmm.
My grandparents and further back ran dairy cattle and hogs. They would never have thought of putting lard in the butter :) And hair is protein.
And those fine brain, tongue and other “by-product” products that they produced, like braunsweiger, head cheese, pickled pigs feet, ears, and balls. One had to pay attention down in the store room or root cellar to make sure what you was picking up to eat.
Canoe, this does cut both ways. Our gubmint (love it) also subsidizes the crap out of farming in general, and corn in particular, leading to the kind of junky cheap food Mary bemoans. Now, the poor might appreciate cheap food, and certainly I like lower costs, but I’m aware of the tradeoffs, and do what I can to avoid high fructose corn syrup and grain fed beef, which would be less depended upon to create cheap food if not so subsidized.
Can we agree that cutting the gubmint subsidies would be a good thing?
I don’t know all the ins and outs of the subsidies, but my understanding is that in order to get those subsidies for the commodity crops, a farmer waives the “right” to grow crops like broccoli and other things that would grow in the Midwest and are healthy foods. If you don’t patronize a small local farm that gets no subsidies at all, most of your vegetables – the healthy stuff – are trucked in from California, Florida, Texas, and more and more from Mexico. How environmentally sound is that?
Mary posted: “If you don’t patronize a small local farm that gets no subsidies at all, most of your vegetables – the healthy stuff – are trucked in from California, Florida, Texas, and more and more from Mexico. How environmentally sound is that?”
This is my personal experience again but when I was living in Mexico City I was warned not to drink the tap water,or buy anything edible from street vendors.The rooming house where I boarded was graded to cater to foreigners so they specially prepared the fruit and vegetables so that I,or other Americans, would not get Montezumas revenge or just become very sick.Mexicans build up an immunity to the unapproved insectides used there.But sickness may come from many other sources,and Americans get sick from what Mexicans are immune to. Hopefully all the imported produce continues to be screened for American comsumption.Those who go to Acapulco or Matzalan have no idea what the ‘real Mexico’ is like.
I did finally get very sick just before I was to leave, I think from using tap water to brush my teeth,so it was own fault.I couldnt even stand up.It was much more than just the usual. The Senora is charge of the rooming house threw a hyperdermic needle in a pan of boiling water,filled it with penicillin,had me lay down on my stomach and gave me a shot.I got well in time to catch my plane,but I was at the mercy of Mexican culture.At least I spoke Spanish.Thats how it’s done in Mexico..home remedy is the surest medicine for most people there and this was in the Capital of Mexico city,not out in the sticks… Mexico City has all kinds of 4-star hotels with their own water filtration,so going as a real tourist there is no danger from germs,but now drug cartels are even worse danger, but mostly in border areas.
But all kinds of controls are so lax everywhere now I just wonder what we are really eating.Much of our fruit and vegetables come from Mexico..lets hope ‘people’ are following procedures that may or may not even be mandatory anymore.
Mary, you should educate yourself on the issue, as your understanding is off. There is a new subsidy that is available to farmers who set aside land for carbon capture, but it would not help small farmers who need to practice crop rotation (too complicated to detail here). It does not dictate which crops can be grown.
The other program, long in practice, allows farmers to set aside a set portion of a crop (for example, a corn field could be fully planted and grown, but x percent would not be harvested) and be paid for that portion in order to keep some of the product off the market to control prices at a stable level. Also this provides ground cover and feed for animals, like rabbits, pheasants and quayle (all the tasty game animals) and conserves land from blowing or washing away.
Farmers here can grow as much vegetable crops as they wish, but the season is short, the labor is not cheap, and California has done a better job of marketing. My mother and her parents used to grow for a big tomatoe canning/processing company–back in the 20-40’s, as did many others. They also grew beans for a different company. Now those corporations have moved out to the coast or south of the border. So goes the global economy and technology.
Sorry about bringing up Quayle twice in a comment. :) And subsidies now are just a money funnel to the large agri-business corps that are bringing us all these chemically enhanced products from the coast and overseas. Still, is our food all the much safer or better than what is found in other countries? Or have we sanitized ourselves so heavily that the least exposure to germs causes us to sicken?
Growing up a Kansas farm boy, was mostly having fun….