Action Needed! Champion the Federal Amendment for On-Farm Slaughter
Urge Congress to Add Clarifying Language in the Federal Meat Inspection Act for On-Farm Slaughter to their Priorities for the Farm Bill!
Support the proposal to protect the practice of slaughtering livestock on the farms where they were raised and clarify the Federal Meat Inspection Act’s “personal-use exemption." Currently, farmers selling livestock for on-farm slaughter, itinerant (traveling) slaughterers, and custom processors all rely on guidance provided by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which bases the personal use exemption on ownership. USDA FSIS guidance, however, is vulnerable to change.
The Farm Bill is a comprehensive piece of legislation that authorizes most federal policies governing food and agriculture programs. The Farm Bill has a miscellaneous section where a technical amendment to the personal-use exemption should clarify that it applies to persons who own animals instead of only to farmers who raise them. Twenty-seven states have livestock slaughter laws, based on this federal exemption, that allow livestock owners to have an agent slaughter their livestock on-farm, and to use that meat without state or federal inspection. The Federal Meat Inspection Act, enacted in 1906 and last updated in 1989, bases the personal-use exemption on who raised the animals instead of who owns them.
The Federal Meat Inspection Act should be revised to protect personal use-based on ownership, reflecting modern FSIS guidance and ensuring that livestock producers and processors have permanent protection to practice on-farm slaughter in accordance with state laws.
Please support this Campaign and Take Action NOW!
Need more info? Policy Guide On-Farm Slaughter here
Call your US Senator and Representative in D.C.! Contact members of Congress here.
Express your support with an individual message, you can customize this template message:
“Dear Senator/Representative __________, I am reaching out to ensure that on-farm slaughter has a place in federal law and urge you to support our Petition to Clarify the Personal-Use Exemption. A resilient food system depends on small, direct-to-consumer farms outside of commodity agriculture, and those farms need a level playing field that can only be served by the protection and preservation of exempt market niches like the personal use exemption for on farm slaughter. Respectfully, _____________”Share & Sign the Petition! LINK TO THE PETITION HERE