New regulations make it harder to buy local

By Jeff Nield

There’s a crisis in BC’s farming communities. The Ministry of Agriculture’s new plan to support local agriculture sounds farmer-friendly, but it was released just months after revised meat regulations put a major obstacle in the path of small producers. In September 2007, public concern over food scares ranging from mad cow disease to e. coli to avian flu prompted the provincial government to rewrite the regulations as part of the 2004 Food Safety Act. However, rather than making our food supply safer, they’ve simply added a deterrent that makes it harder for farmers to produce food for their local markets.

At their most basic, the regulations ensure that every animal killed for human consumption is processed in a federally or provincially licensed facility, a requirement that is making it difficult for small and specialty producers to stay in business. Although some government assistance is available to upgrade facilities to comply with the new standards, the money available would only cover a portion of the cost.

Remote producers have been slaughtering on-farm, in some cases for generations, and shipping livestock hundreds of miles to the licensed facilities would put undue stress on the animals. Most small producers raise their animals humanely, and subjecting them to additional trauma is counter to their whole philosophy. Moreover, the unnecessary carbon emissions that result from driving animals the extra distance seems contrary to the provincial government’s goal to reduce greenhouse gases. It’s a classic case of government departments working at cross-purposes.

“Its a bit of a blanket regulation for large and small producers,” says poultry and beef farmer Christine Piltz on the phone from her Quesnel farm. “Small producers don’t have the capacity to upgrade like the big producers.” In a creative approach to problem-solving, Piltz has joined together with other local producers to form the Cariboo-Central Interior Poultry Producers Association. With the closest licensed facility currently hundreds of miles away in the Lower Mainland, the Association is working to establish a mobile poultry slaughter facility that would serve farmers from 100 Mile House to Vanderhoof.

Before the regulations came into effect, animals raised and processed in the region were among the 5% across the province that were slaughtered either on-farm or in small mom-and-pop operations. While these facilities weren’t provincially or federally licensed, they did have to meet local health codes and were kept up to standard by visits from local health inspectors. Most of the animals processed through these facilities were sold at the farm gate and in the local community.

It would have been easiest to continue processing animals as they always have, but Piltz and others in her association view this as an opportunity. “We’re looking at the changes in a proactive and progressive way,” she explains. “Each community will have a stake in making this a success.” The association’s efforts have already given members a six-month license extension to continue slaughter for direct-to-consumer sales. Piltz hopes that by that time, all of the pieces will be in place for the mobile slaughterhouse to be funded, licensed and operational. “We want to show that instead of having chickens produced elsewhere coming into our community, we should be able to produce birds locally.”

It’s difficult to argue with legislation that is meant to make something safer, but if anything, the new regulations give a false sense of security to consumers. A plant that is inspected and licensed doesn’t ensure that a sick animal won’t enter the slaughter line, or that workers follow proper procedures and keep the food supply safe. The recent recall of 140 million pounds of beef in the USA illustrates the point. The video that prompted the recall shows workers forcing cows too sick to stand into the facility so they could be slaughtered, processed and sold. If consumers were given the choice, it’s hard to imagine anyone choosing to eat meat processed by underpaid workers with no vested interest in the end product over meat raised and slaughtered within their own community by friends and neighbours.

There is speculation that the government is considering exceptions to the regulations for producers supplying local markets. While this would be a step forward, it would most likely affect only on-farm slaughter for farm-gate sales. It will take consumer pressure to make government understand that the regulations unfairly penalize small and specialty producers. If you think the regulations should be revised, write your MLA.  To view sample letters and for more in-depth analysis of how various communities throughout the province are reacting to the regulations, visit the News page of the FarmFolk/CityFolk website at farmfolkcityfolk.ca.
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Jeff Nield, based in Vancouver, works with FarmFolk/CityFolk to cultivate
a local, sustainable food system. farmfolkcityfolk.ca