[declan_roberts]

Moving to the country has really opened up my eyes for food production, especially meat.

There are so many small farmers here that are basically shut out from the economy because of impossible USDA guidelines. And we're honestly supposed to believe that mega meat processing plants are somehow better for us? It's delusional.

Call your representative and ask them to support the PRIME act.

https://ij.org/initiatives/food-freedom/prime-act/

[Trisell]

100% this. As a small time farmer. I cannot butcher my own animals and sell them to anybody directly. I have to sell them "on the hoof" in a minimum size of a quarter of an animal and then have a custom butcher process the animal. I can't sell any of my meat directly to a person after it's butchered, or to a restaurant. I can only sell in those cases if I go to an FDA certified meat processor, which is 400 miles one way from my property. So essentially I'm limited to selling meat to either friends and family or shipping my animals 400 miles and paying $2 a pound in processing costs.

So no the Prime act isn't a way for corporations to go around the rules, it's so small guys like myself can sell meat to people without having to truck it 800 miles.

[rndmize]

Reading from the linked website, it looks like the PRIME act is a way to avoid federal regulation in favor of potentially looser state regulation. Now I have no dog in this fight, but why couldn't we say, push for the house ag committee to get some people from the FDA to explain why these slaughterhouse regs are so onerous? Is passing a bill the best way to get something done?

[Trisell]

I would say that anybody who is interested in the system should listen to this. All of the people in this panel, called by both Republicans and Democrats, call out the need for serious reforms of the FDA inspection system. And how the FDA system specifically allows large meat corporations to cut the little guy out of cutting meat. If you think that the current system limits 'bad meat' from entering the system. You need to understand that the FDA is fully captured by the corporations that it's supposed to be governing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9xcOkwgdi0&pp=ygURcHJpbWUgY...

[malcolmgreaves]

Well, this is quite thinly vieled attempt to let corporations hurt people and make a profit doing it!

You've linked to a politically Republican organization's page, where they're promoting legislation that would let companies produce unsanitary and unsafe meat. Do you not understand that the USDA guidelines are (a) easily obtainable and (b) exist to keep people from getting sick or dying from unsanitary meat? Or do you just stand to individually profit from this legislation?

[dreadlordbone]

"You've linked to a politically Republican organization's page"

Why does this matter? You could have said "a political organization's" but didn't.

[malcolmgreaves]

If I did that, I'd be intentionally leaving out critical information that is necessary to understand the context, motivation, and aim of the article.

[tristor]

> a politically Republican organization

Your other arguments aside, why is this surprising or relevant? For whatever else you can say about the broken politics in America, the only party that gives a shit about rural people is the Republicans, so of course any organization focused on rural issues is Republican.

[malcolmgreaves]

> the only party that gives a shit about rural people is the Republicans

Unfortunately, the Republican party has long outspent its benefit of the doubt.

I'll admit that Republicans say they care about rural people. But, then again, the Republican party says a lot of things, much of it are easily disprovable lies. An easy one to point out is the lie that "the 2020 election was stolen" or that the numerous criminal cases against the former president, backed by tremendous evidence, are "witch hunts". These, and other lies, are constantly pushed by the Republican party, its leadership, and the most vocal advocates of the party.

The Republican party doesn't have any credibility left. So, I'll continue to do the rational thing, which is to ignore the folks that have a long history, and ample evidence in the present, of intentionally lying.

Of course, I could be swayed if you can point to actual laws, executive actions, or judicial rulings made by Republicans -- and in opposition by Democrats -- that resoundly demonstrates that there is "only one party that gives a shit about rural people."

[tristor]

> The Republican party doesn't have any credibility left. So, I'll continue to do the rational thing, which is to ignore the folks that have a long history, and ample evidence in the present, of intentionally lying.

You're making politically motivated reasoning and ignoring the people who are telling you something from the ground. You're free to continue to do so, and this HN subthread is not the right place to re-litigate the entire history of American politics. Just be aware that motivated reasoning is not necessarily the best approach to find the truth.

[malcolmgreaves]

I wouldn't call this "motivated reasoning." It's rather simple cognitively: I have made observations and only the barest form of logical inference.

I've observing mountains of evidence that clearly shows multiple crimes committed by Mr. Trump. I've also observed how the Republican Party has decided to ignore this evidence and reject truth to rally behind him. Perhaps most notably was the GOP's 2020 platform (more accurately, lack of a platform as they didn't actually publish anything of substance other than a re-iteration of their positions 4 years prior), that included "party's continued support for Trump's America First agenda" [1]

I'm so curious as to what you could possibly mean by:

> who are telling you something from the ground

Because there's only conspiracy theories and outright lies left fueling the fabricated "outrage" in the Republican party.

[tristor]

I would suggest you simply re-read your comments and mine. You are so far down a rabbit hole here that's completely irrelevant to the original thing that was shared you replied to, that I'm not even remotely going to engage in what you are writing. I'd suggest you take a deep breath and read.

[freejazz]

lol what? I live in NYC and buy from small upstate farms from my butcher that only sells pastured meats... the USDA doesn't seem to be a problem for them at all

[michael_michael]

I'm not sure your example disproves OP. Your artisanal butcher can pass on any costs of compliance to you, and people like you who live in wealth-dense NYC and are willing to pay extra for pasture-raised meats. That is not true for much of the population that expects to pay $5 for a Costco rotisserie chicken.

[brookside]

Pasteurized as in the meats are pre-cooked? Or are you possibly meaning pasture-raised?

[arrosenberg]

Pastured. As in, raised in a pasture.