3 ms·

With poor enforcement, it would be nice if at least I could buy my meat directly from the farmer I know where at least I can see the facilities for myself, but

With poor enforcement, it would be nice if at least I could buy my meat directly from the farmer I know where at least I can see the facilities for myself, but they have made that illegal -- no you must buy it through one of the poorly enforced USDA approved slaughterhouses that I have no personal connection to.

bognition 8mo ago
Interesting, where are you running into trouble buying meat from local farmers? I've often visit rural farms that have a store houses. Nearly all of them haver refrigerators and freezers with meat to buy.
CGMthrowaway 8mo ago
There is currently a bill in Congress trying to address (some of) that: https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/family_grocery_and_farmer_relief_act__section-by-section_3526.pdf https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/family_grocer... And also milk: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374 https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374
- magicalist 8mo ago
  > And also milk: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374 https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374 lol yes what we really need right now is unregulated interstate sales of raw milk. Luckily that was introduced in 2024 (last congress) and went nowhere.
delichon 8mo ago
I buy beef in bulk from a rancher, who sends me to get it from a USDA approved slaughterhouse. Which is a small family operation, so I've gotten to know them well too. They raise the most delicious lamb I've ever tasted.
whoiskevin 8mo ago
Never had any problem buying from local farms. Not sure where that is illegal.
ne0flex 8mo ago
Your comment reminded me of this book called, "everything I want to do is illegal" [1] written by a farmer that talks about his annoyances with the US food system and how regulations favor corporate farming. [1] https://tinyurl.com/hb95amyw https://tinyurl.com/hb95amyw
- WalterGR 8mo ago
  Direct link so you aren’t tracked by tinyurl: https://bookstore.acresusa.com/products/everything-i-want-to-do-is-illegal https://bookstore.acresusa.com/products/everything-i-want-to...
blackjack_ 8mo ago
Yeah one of my friends is bashing her head against the wall about this. She’s a small farmer up on the Olympic peninsula where there are no approved slaughterhouses for small farmers to use to process meat, so them selling the meat locally to people around them is illegal. So she is trying to build one for the surrounding area, except all the regulations that exist are for insanely scaled operations and make no sense for a small scale… so she has to keep petitioning the county about different things.
- cherry_tree 8mo ago
  Why not just sell the animals and offer her butchering services for free separate from any transaction?
JumpCrisscross 8mo ago
> they have made that illegal We have the Food Freedom Act in Wyoming [1]. It technically requires meat be sold "for future delivery provided that the processing of the animals is done by the purchaser or by a Wyoming or federally licensed processing facility." But in my experience, ranchers are liberal with how they define me "processing" my meat. (In one case, he pointed out the bits of silver skin he hadn't trimmed. So I "processed" those off at home.) [1] https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2015/HB0056 https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2015/HB0056
naravara 8mo ago
Do you think “have a personal relationship with the farmer, slaughterhouse, and butcher” is a scalable solution? And if you happen to live near a cattle ranch and know your supply chain for beef, how are you going to establish a relationship with the guy selling you fish as well? Will you be making road trips to the coast to talk to some fishermen and ride along on their boats? The instinct to see a bureaucratic system working poorly and resolving to opt out instead of fixing it is precisely why everything sucks right now. You can’t just work and vibe and spend your way out of living in an advanced industrial society.
jalapenoj 8mo ago
A bureaucrat losing his job is always a good thing.
- mindslight 8mo ago
  That falls a bit flat when the bureaucrat has been replaced by an autocrat, don't you think?
- atmavatar 8mo ago
  That's about as useful and true as "a programmer losing his/her job to AI is always a good thing". There certainly exist bad regulations and bad bureaucrats, but many (most?) regulations are written in blood, whether it be from employees, customers, or merely innocent bystanders, and there needs to be a group of people who facilitate said regulations. I'm all for aggressive and continuous re-evaluation of regulations and downsizing bloated bureaucracies, but blanket "all bueeaucrats/regulations are bad" sentiments gets us ineffectual and grifting BS like DOGE, and it creates the very real possibility we'll have to re-learn bloody lessons down the road. Knee-capping the USDA will almost certainly to lead to some very painful education in the future.

bognition 8mo ago

Interesting, where are you running into trouble buying meat from local farmers? I've often visit rural farms that have a store houses. Nearly all of them haver refrigerators and freezers with meat to buy.

CGMthrowaway 8mo ago

There is currently a bill in Congress trying to address (some of) that: https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/family_grocery_and_farmer_relief_act__section-by-section_3526.pdf https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/family_grocer... And also milk: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374 https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374

magicalist 8mo ago
> And also milk: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374 https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8374 lol yes what we really need right now is unregulated interstate sales of raw milk. Luckily that was introduced in 2024 (last congress) and went nowhere.

delichon 8mo ago

I buy beef in bulk from a rancher, who sends me to get it from a USDA approved slaughterhouse. Which is a small family operation, so I've gotten to know them well too. They raise the most delicious lamb I've ever tasted.

whoiskevin 8mo ago

Never had any problem buying from local farms. Not sure where that is illegal.

ne0flex 8mo ago

Your comment reminded me of this book called, "everything I want to do is illegal" [1] written by a farmer that talks about his annoyances with the US food system and how regulations favor corporate farming. [1] https://tinyurl.com/hb95amyw https://tinyurl.com/hb95amyw

WalterGR 8mo ago
Direct link so you aren’t tracked by tinyurl: https://bookstore.acresusa.com/products/everything-i-want-to-do-is-illegal https://bookstore.acresusa.com/products/everything-i-want-to...

blackjack_ 8mo ago

Yeah one of my friends is bashing her head against the wall about this. She’s a small farmer up on the Olympic peninsula where there are no approved slaughterhouses for small farmers to use to process meat, so them selling the meat locally to people around them is illegal. So she is trying to build one for the surrounding area, except all the regulations that exist are for insanely scaled operations and make no sense for a small scale… so she has to keep petitioning the county about different things.

cherry_tree 8mo ago
Why not just sell the animals and offer her butchering services for free separate from any transaction?

JumpCrisscross 8mo ago

> they have made that illegal We have the Food Freedom Act in Wyoming [1]. It technically requires meat be sold "for future delivery provided that the processing of the animals is done by the purchaser or by a Wyoming or federally licensed processing facility." But in my experience, ranchers are liberal with how they define me "processing" my meat. (In one case, he pointed out the bits of silver skin he hadn't trimmed. So I "processed" those off at home.) [1] https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2015/HB0056 https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2015/HB0056

naravara 8mo ago

Do you think “have a personal relationship with the farmer, slaughterhouse, and butcher” is a scalable solution? And if you happen to live near a cattle ranch and know your supply chain for beef, how are you going to establish a relationship with the guy selling you fish as well? Will you be making road trips to the coast to talk to some fishermen and ride along on their boats? The instinct to see a bureaucratic system working poorly and resolving to opt out instead of fixing it is precisely why everything sucks right now. You can’t just work and vibe and spend your way out of living in an advanced industrial society.

jalapenoj 8mo ago

A bureaucrat losing his job is always a good thing.

mindslight 8mo ago
That falls a bit flat when the bureaucrat has been replaced by an autocrat, don't you think?
atmavatar 8mo ago
That's about as useful and true as "a programmer losing his/her job to AI is always a good thing". There certainly exist bad regulations and bad bureaucrats, but many (most?) regulations are written in blood, whether it be from employees, customers, or merely innocent bystanders, and there needs to be a group of people who facilitate said regulations. I'm all for aggressive and continuous re-evaluation of regulations and downsizing bloated bureaucracies, but blanket "all bueeaucrats/regulations are bad" sentiments gets us ineffectual and grifting BS like DOGE, and it creates the very real possibility we'll have to re-learn bloody lessons down the road. Knee-capping the USDA will almost certainly to lead to some very painful education in the future.