Listen to the Interview MP3 audio file

Transcript:
Read the PDF of: Special Solari Report: Food Series: Winning the War on Meat – The PRIME Act with Thomas Massie

“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. It is time to open our markets to give producers the freedom to succeed and consumers the freedom to choose.” ~ Congressman Thomas Massie, press release (June 11, 2021)

By Pete Kennedy

Access to slaughterhouses, especially USDA- and state-inspected slaughterhouses, remains the biggest weakness in the local food system. Many slaughterhouses in the U.S. are booked out for a year or more, making it difficult for small farmers and ranchers to meet demand. The best legislative solution to this problem is the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act known as the PRIME Act.

The PRIME Act (H.R. 3835 / S. 2001) is before Congress for a fourth time and its passage is needed more than ever, especially with the supply chain disruptions of the past year and a half, and the intensifying, well-timed campaign for synthetic meat to replace real meat in our diets.

Passage of the PRIME Act would enable states to pass laws legalizing the sale of custom slaughtered meat produced within their borders. Congressman Thomas Massie, lead sponsor of the PRIME Act, returns to the Solari Food Series to discuss its prospects in the 117th Congress. Officially, Congressman Massie represents the 4th district of Kentucky; unofficially, he is the Congressman for the local food movement in this country. As a cattleman himself, Massie has first-hand experience with the slaughterhouse bottleneck hurting small livestock producers. He talks about how the bill can significantly improve the slaughterhouse infrastructure in the US, what the problems with the current system are, what the opposition to the legislation is, and how despite its powerful opponents the PRIME Act does have a chance to pass.

Most importantly, Representative Massie tells us how we can support the bill. It’s just a matter of making three phone calls: one to each of our U.S. senators and another to our U.S. representative. He believes that as little as 10 phone calls to a congressional (federal legislator’s) office can result in a bill co-sponsor. You will find a link to a Weston A. Price Foundation action alert on the PRIME Act below, which provides talking points on the importance of passing the bill. Your support can make the difference!

Related Links

Action Alert with talking points: “PRIME Act needs your support in the new Congress!”
Representatives Massie and Pingree Introduce Bipartisan PRIME Act to Empower Local Livestock Farmers, Meet Consumer Demand – June 11, 2021 Press Release

Videos
Massie – Living off the grid
Massie – A lobbyist’s attempted bribe

Other Resources
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
The Weston A. Price Foundation

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5 Comments

  1. This is not a “war on meat”, it’s a war on local businesses. How you label a phenomenon is just as important as the phenomenon you are trying to share, lest you get the wrong crowd showing up to the meetings.

    I have been anti-Federal government since I was 18 years old, but I know how to express it in such a way where I will not be getting Christian Identity groups, in other words modern day KKK ideology showing up at my door.

    To say there is a “war on meat” is to say that somehow someone is attacking Cargill and Tyson. I asked fellow Solarians about that and all some of them could share are theories of how it could be so and it is patently not true, there is no war on Tyson and Cargill, on the contrary, Tyson and Cargill are the Amazon and Walmart of the meat industry, they are the ones destroying independent cattle ranches, so the topic should reflect that. “War on independent cattle ranches” says something way different than “war on meat”.

    Here is Joel Dyer to put things in their proper context:

    “On a recent trip to North Dakota, Bill Hefferman (rural sociology professor from Missouri) attended meetings on the sad state of the northern beef industry. Ranchers claim that monopolies such as Cargill have purchased or caused to be shut down many of the independent feedlots, creating very few buyers to bid on their cattle at sale time. Ranchers believe this lack of competition has kept the prices too low for them to survive.” — Harvests of Rage, page 65.

    It’s a war on independent producers, not on meat. This same war is happening in all other industries.

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