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State-inspected meat should be able to move in interstate comm
By Cheryl Stubbendieck Nebraska Farm Bureau vice president/public relations
Often it's fun to read about outdated laws. The things a previous generation thought important to prohibit or prescribe make us smile or cause us to wonder, "What were they thinking?" It's much less amusing when an outdated law continues in effect for no good reason and in fact causes harm. Such is the situation with a current U.S. law that prohibits meat and poultry inspected under a state inspection program from being sold in interstate commerce. Another federal law, a good one, requires that state inspection be at least equivalent to federal inspection. Currently 28 states have their own meat and poultry inspection programs. Nebraska, however, no longer has a state program. Milk, dairy products, fruit, vegetables, fish, shellfish and canned products, which are inspected under state jurisdiction, can be marketed freely throughout the U.S. Venison, bison, pheasant, quail, and rabbit, all regulated by state programs, can be shipped anywhere in the country. Meat and poultry products from 34 foreign nations can be freely shipped and sold in the U.S. But state-inspected, domestically produced beef, poultry, pork, lamb and goat cannot. This prohibition on interstate shipment of state-inspected meat, contained in the 1967 and 1968 Meat and Poultry Inspection Acts, makes no sense now--if it ever did. It's a problem for more than 2,000 state-inspected meat processors. These are mostly small, family-owned, specialty businesses who need as wide a market as possible to be successful. Yet they're restricted from sending their product to the 49 other states. Like other old laws, the 1967 and '68 laws have survived attempts to change them. In November 1999, then-Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman spoke in support of "The New Markets for State-Inspected Meat Act" of 1999. Three U.S. Department of Agriculture advisory committees also have long recommend that the ban be removed. A new coalition of 40 organizations favors the change. In April, Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Mike Enzi of Wyoming introduced "The New Markets for State-Inspected Meat Act of 2007." The House now has similar legislation on its plate. This is an act that ought to pass this go-round. More so than in 1999, the Internet makes it possible for producers whose meat products are state-inspected to market their products throughout the country. They shouldn't be discriminated against any longer. B 4 5/28/07 6 Star Midwest Ag Date: 5/23/07
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