2021 On-Farm Slaughter Improvements & Discourses
The Senate amended H.420, the miscellaneous ag bill, that now doubles the allowances for on-farm slaughter of livestock (in 6 V.S.A. § 3311a): from 5 to 10 cattle, 15 to 30 pigs, 40 to 80 sheep and goats or a total combined live weight of 12,000 pounds. We expect a vote of the House about concurrence any day now. The bill also repeals the “sunset” of the law and thereby secures this important practice of food sovereignty in perpetuity.
In addition, the bill directs the legislative council to draft legislation by 2022 that will clearly allow for CSAs with animal shares in consultation with the Agency for Agriculture, Food, and Markets (AAFM) "and other interested parties." Rural Vermont is in dispute with AAFM about the interpretation of the current law, especially about the question of whether the current law does or does not allow for CSAs for animal shares when the members become owners of the animal or herd.
In consultation with legislative council Michael O'Grady, the committee learned last Friday (watch recording here) that their approach to clarify in statute the legality of animal shares for on-farm slaughter - including the shared ownership of a herd and the delivery of meat products - would conflict with the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Services interpretation of the legal barriers of the federal personal use exemption in 9 CFR § 303.1 (a) (1) that states that the federal requirements for meat inspection do not apply to (*Content warning: sexist language*): “The slaughtering by any individual of livestock of his own raising and the preparation by him and transportation in commerce of the carcasses, parts thereof, meat and meat food products of such livestock exclusively for use by him and members of his household and his nonpaying guests and employees;” Legislative Counsel, Michael O’Grady, referenced FSIS interpretation as effectively requiring any and all owner(s) of the livestock to participate in some ways in the slaughter of the livestock. This interpretation, which FSIS only offered a few days ago, would render the personal use exemption completely impractical.
The discourse around CSAs with animal shares has revealed that AAFM is in a pickle with navigating taking agency for the on-farm slaughter community while also satisfying FSIS guidelines. In the Senate Committee on Agriculture they raised concern that FSIS's narrow interpretation of the law would impair Vermont's "equal to" status (that equated state inspected meat with USDA inspection) as well as the interstate shipment agreement with the USDA (that allows for out of state sales of state inspected meat), shall the committee proceed with their allowance of animal shares within the on-farm slaughter practice.
Rural Vermont argued in testimony last week (watch recording here) that Vermont’s current state law could be interpreted as already allowing for CSA’s with animal shares since it does allow for multiple owners and also does not prohibit a farmer's delivery of meat products as derived from custom butcher shops.
In 2019, Rural Vermont successfully advocated for the “multiple owner” amendment - that now allows a farmer to sell a live animal to an individual or individuals to slaughter for their personal use on the farm the animal was raised. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) confirmed back then that this amendment would be permissible under the federal personal use exemption in 9 CFR § 303.1 (a) (1).
Considering the multiple owner rule and the ability to utilize custom butchery, Rural Vermont believes that current law does not create barriers for realizing CSA models with animal shares. CSAs can facilitate what on-farm slaughter requires: a contract pre-slaughter that turns “customers” into “owners” of the animal(s) and thus responsible for the slaughter of their livestock for their own “personal use.” Legally, we argue that the law doesn’t prohibit CSAs so that farmers and their customers/members/stakeholders may design their contracts within the limitations of federal and state law as part of their “freedom of contract” - a doctrine derived from the fourteenth amendment (read more here). That would include that a farmer is allowed to sell a herd of livestock to multiple owners and include also that these owners are free to hire the farmer to maintain care of the livestock and to organize for the hiring of an itinerant slaughterer to perform the act of slaughtering as well as to utilize the services of a custom butcher shop on behalf of the owners. Farmers are also allowed to maintain (co-)ownership of any of the animals and to slaughter the animals they will consume themselves.
Rural Vermont will engage in finding a legislative solution for the CSA with animal shares for the 2022 legislative session as directed in H. 420. We celebrate the increase in allowances for on-farm slaughter and the sunset repeal that will secure this important decentralized direct-to-owner pathway to local meat consumption.
For more information please contact caroline@ruralvermont.org