Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME) have reintroduced the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at making it easier for small farms and ranches to serve consumers by allowing intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat.
The PRIME Act (H.R. 2814) would give individual states the freedom to permit the distribution of custom-slaughtered beef, pork, or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, and grocery stores within their borders. Under current law, custom slaughter of animals is exempt from federal inspection regulations only if the meat is for personal, household, guest, and employee use.
“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 Massie, who raises cattle on his off-the-grid farm in northeast Kentucky. “It is time to open our markets to give producers the freedom to succeed and consumers the freedom to choose.”
Pingree, who raises grass-fed beef and chickens on her farm in Maine, emphasized the importance of supporting local farms and addressing the needs of communities by allowing family farms to feed their neighbors.
Companion legislation (S. 907) has been introduced in the United States Senate with bipartisan support.
