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WHERE'S THE BEEF?
By Roger Johnson, Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Agriculture and
J. Carlton Courter, III, Commissioner, Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
American consumers enjoy the safest meat and poultry supply in the world, thanks to our system of food safety laws and inspection programs. Ironically, these same laws give preference to imports of meat products from foreign countries at the expense of hard-working, small business owners in the U.S.
An outdated law from the 1960s prohibits the sale of state-inspected products (beef, poultry, pork, lamb and goat) across state lines, even though these products must meet or exceed federal inspection standards. Meat and poultry products from 34 countries can be freely shipped and sold anywhere in the U.S., as long as that foreign country’s inspection program is equivalent to our federal standards—essentially the same standards that state meat inspection programs must meet. Foreign countries such as Croatia and Nicaraugua can ship and sell their meat products anywhere in the United States, but state-inspected, U.S. meat and poultry producers cannot. This is unfair and wrong. Why are small businesses in the U.S. denied opportunities that are given to companies in foreign countries?
No other food commodities inspected by state authorities are prohibited from being shipped across state lines. Other state-inspected food products, including perishable items such as milk, dairy products, fruit, vegetables, fish, and shellfish, are marketed freely across the country. Why aren’t the same marketing options available for meat and poultry?
Oddly enough, the current ban on interstate sales does not apply to “non-amenable” meats such as venison, pheasant, quail, rabbit and others. It makes no sense to allow these products across state borders while beef, pork, lamb and goat cannot be shipped interstate. Where’s the logic in this?
Sens. Orrin Hatch (UT) and Kent Conrad (ND) and Reps. Roy Blunt (MO) and Earl Pomeroy (ND) have introduced legislation in Congress to remedy this situation. Their bipartisan legislation (S. 3519 and H.R. 6130) would allow state-inspected meat and poultry products to be sold across state lines.
Lawmakers in Washington have studied the issue of interstate meat sales for more than a decade. Three USDA advisory committees have recommended repealing the outdated law. Doing so should create jobs and stimulate rural economic development. Congress should promptly pass the Hatch-Blunt legislation to level the economic playing field for rural small businesses. Increased markets will not only benefit producers and processors, but it also gives consumers more choices at the supermarket. It’s just common sense and it’s the right thing to do.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
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