Meat & Poultry Inspection Cut

Governor Mitch Daniels' office announced last week that it has issued a mandate to the Meat and Poultry Inspection Program (MPIP) to reduce its operations by $2 million. To achieve this, the MPIP, administered by the State Board of Animal Health, would have to reduce its activities by at least 50%.

This article from Farm World Online provides a discussion of the issue, and so does this article at Hoosier Ag Today.

A significantly reduced meat inspection staff may change much about Indiana's meat industry. An email from the Indiana Sheep Association to its members urged them to discuss the matter with their legislators. "If you do not sell direct, at a farmers market or restaurant sales, or donate lambs for fairs, roasts or other activities, this may not impact you. But if you do, this may profoundly affect your ability to continue these activities."

The Board of Animal Health released a set of "key points" in response to such concerns. It states that "BOAH will inspect only products that will be entering commerce." It remains to be seen (1) exactly what the acting definition of "entering commerce" is, (2) how seriously the inspectors' schedules are cut, and (3) what the resultants effects will be on local livestock producers, processors, distributors like grocery stores and butchers, restaurants, and consumers. (That covers just about everybody in the state, I think.)

Here is the entire BOAH document:

Indiana’s Meat and Poultry Inspection Program Key Points
1-29-10

If you have questions, feel free to contact the Indiana Meat and Poultry Inspection Program at 317-227-0355.

· Like all state agencies, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) has been affected by lagging state revenues. As a result, in early January, BOAH asked state-inspected meat processing facilities to streamline their slaughter and processing schedules to maximize state inspection resources to meet reduced budget goals.

· After excellent cooperation and much input from the meat processing industry, as well as Hoosier livestock producers, BOAH was able to work with the state budget agency to design a plan to overhaul Indiana’s Meat and Poultry Inspection Program (MPIP) to reduce expenses. Regrettably, the plan will ultimately involve significant MPIP staff lay-offs.

· The modified plan preserves a viable state-inspection program with a high priority on food safety of value-added, locally produced food. While the new plan falls short of the initial 50 percent budget cut goal, MPIP will achieve significant cost savings. Specifics of the plan will be rolled out over the coming weeks.

· To achieve these savings, BOAH will inspect only products that will be entering commerce. Plants owners will have the option to process products under state inspection, as well as custom-exempt status (also known as the Curtis Amendment), in the same facility.

· BOAH recognizes and appreciates the input and cooperation of the state’s meat processors and many industry stakeholders to identify efficiencies that made this plan possible, which will preserve Indiana’s state meat and poultry inspection program.

Denise Derrer
Public Information Director
Indiana State Board of Animal Health
805 Beachway Drive, Ste. 50
Indianapolis, IN 46224-7785
317/227-0308
www.boah.in.gov

Indiana Local & Organic Food & Farm Task Force

does not exist.

But Indiana State Senator Sue Errington (26th District) introduced a bill proposing the idea last week: SB 194. She modeled this bill after the Food, Farms, and Jobs Act passed in Illinois in 2007, which created that state's Local & Organic Food & Farms Task Force. SB 194 was scheduled to be heard by the Small Business and Agriculture Committee of the Indiana Senate on Monday, January 25th. However, Committee Chairman Johnny Nugent (43rd District) denied a vote on it, as is his discretion, aborting any further consideration of it.

The pork producers and the poultry association had expressed their opposition to such legislation, arguing that it favors one kind of product over another.

The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), for its part, noted that there are already several state intiatives with priorities similar to SB 194. This will be the subject of future posts, but suffice to say here that the ISDA has recognized that Indiana has a clear, underutilized advantage in producing organic field crops and livestock. Download the "Trends in Specialty Agriculture" section of the ISDA Strategic Plan here to.

The ISDA put forth an alternative bill to replace the original SB 194. Instead of a Task Force, this bill would have required that the ISDA produce a report on the local and organic food system in Indiana, including recommendations for improvements. To our knowledge, even this amendment was not seriously considered by the committee.

Rest In Peace, SB 194, we hardly knew ye.


The Case for Food Policy Councils

Q:
So why is it so great that Illinois achieved legislation that institutionalizes a Food, Farms, and Jobs Council? Why should Indiana have such an organization?

A:
Because the world energy crisis is quickly increasing the costs of mass agriculture, we need to plan for a new, more reasonable system. Local, State, National and World governments are organizations through which long range planning can be achieved with stakeholder input. In this case, the stakeholders are anyone who eats. And that's everybody.

More A:
Quoting from this recent report from the Food First Institute for Food & Development Policy:

This [Food Policy Council] model is in many ways still in its infancy, but the model itself, based on our literature review and interview data, shows five key potentials:
• Potential to address public health through improving food access, addressing hunger and food insecurity, and improving the quality of available food
• Potential to affect national and state level policy debates
• Potential to connect multiple sectors that wouldn't otherwise work together
• Potential to bring local food policy into mainstream politics
• Potential to boost local economies and combat poverty

All of these key potentials lead to one central idea – that Food Policy Councils have the potential to democratize the food system. The failings of our current food system are largely suffered in neighborhoods and constituencies with little political or economic voice. Food Policy Councils can amplify the voices of underserved communities that have traditionally had limited access to power. The Detroit Food Policy Council for example, made addressing the underlying racial and economic disparities in food access, retail ownership, food sector jobs and control over food- producing resources a cornerstone of their policy platform – explicitly attacking structural racism inherent in the food system and creating space for greater economic democracy and food justice.

Why Not Indiana?

To start off, let's take a look at recent food policy legislation passed in Illinois.

Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs

Last August the Illinois governor Pat Quinn signed the Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Act of 2009. This is a piece of legislation that seeks to improve the state's economy by improving its food systems. Here's what it does:
1- creates the Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Council, a new agency (fiscally independent from state government) that promotes and facilitates the sale of Illinois-grown food in local markets;
2- working with the Council, state-owned cafeterias set the goal of buying 20%, and any state-funded institutions set the goal of buying 10%, of their food from within the state by 2020. That includes such institutions as public universities, mental health facilities, correctional facilities, etc. (Currently this figure is around 5% for Illinois.);
3- creates and implements of an “Illinois product” labeling system, administered by the Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Council.
Read it for yourself.

This legislation was based on recommendations made by the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force which was created in 2007 through the Food, Farms and Jobs Act of 2007. Their illuminating and thorough report can downloaded here. Recommended reading!

Years of pressure by grassroots groups on government officials in Illinois made this happen. In fact, Illinois's state legislators passed this legislation unanimously (excepting one single state senator). Imagine!

Wouldn't Indiana benefit from having such a council? The accelerating interests here in eating locally, farmers' markets, CSAs, cooperatives, community gardens, and organics show that Indiana is actively changing its food landscape even if policy lags far behind.