Little has changed since the first month or so of the Federal and State Response to COVID. At least not in the small scale agriculture community involved with speciality crops, meats and other food supplies. The USDA has seen fit to harness this group of producers with laws and obligations not imposed on large scale, importers, and state side prodcuers. Special, unnecessary, expensive label requirements, along with the regulated inability to meet any and all demands for foods has caused great roadblocks that are totally unnecessary.

Raw milk, butter, inspections and labeling abnormalities are only part of the Government’s attack on the small scale producers who are committed to providing far superior food products over the large, government subsidized agriculture producers of large quantities of lesser goods. Redundancies and ridiculous limitations have a big effect on a small producer. It makes us consider violating the law to provide desirable, superior products to our customers.

A couple examples would be in order here. For instance, we dedided we wanted to include the wording Grass Fed Beef on our label. That is classified by the USDA as a speciality label. That classification allows them to require redundant, unnecessary, more costly additions to the label that make no sense. One addition is for the requirement to list the weight of the package in pounds and in ounces. We just cant put 1 lb. on the label. We are required to not only put 1 ;b. but also 16 ounces. A 2,3 pound roast must also indicate that it weighs 36.8 ounces. If you go to the store, the USDA pets who produce the beef the USDA is want to promote is only required to put 1 lb, or 2.3 lbs. That might not seem like a big deal to one not involved ii the process but take 100 pieces and spend the time converting pounds to ounces and you have a lot of wasted time for nothing. It certainly is not something that the consumer couldn’t do if they wondered how many ounces it weighs.

Well, the producer can just run it through the machine. That works if they have a special software that does the conversion for them. Since most processors process non-special label products, they don’t spend the extra money on the multiple weight designation software. That’s fine for them, but what about the producer who wants to put Grass Fed Beef on the label? This stupid requirement removes a huge percentage of processers who can cut and wrap the product. Now the farmer must travel farther and spend more for a worthless label requirement. You say, don’t put it on the label. That is a solution, but is it the appropriate solution to the problem. Persons wanting Grass Fed Beef want to see it listed on the label.

Another probably unintended negative consequence created by the USDA and the Governments with the COVID response is the tremendous amount of time required to get a cow, pig, sheep or goat into the processer. If it is for personal consumption there may be a marginally smaller wait period. But, if you are wanting to retail your product, the weight time gets close to a year. Since I have customers throughout the year I am pretty much required to schedule a year in advance. There is no way I know what, how many or when I will need the beef, pork or lamb, but I am required to schedule it. Why? Panic was created in the small scale industry. Farmers that have regular obligations want to be assured they can get their animals in for processing. If they can’t, they lose the customer who needs the product. Therefore, the panic and long time out scheduling is still with us. The only thing the Government is doing now is fueling the panic with its repetitive uncertainties and disasters created in the markets.

I could go on with the USDA making raw milk and butter as good as illegal. They say we can only sell it a certain way but the restrictions only make the purchase a nightmare. What they really are saying is that they don’t want you to buy the products. They intrude into your diet with faulty beliefs and doctored statistics that they use to subsantiate their intrusions.

Biden, the clown, is continuing to create unnecessary panic, dispare and confusion in our entire system. Business as usual is long gone. In short order, business will be long gone. Perhaps the consumer will see the false narrative in the “protection” by the government and begin to live freely and work closely with the local farmer to get the products they want in more atypical ways. Getting away from the USDA product certification will be a good start to help families survive our near future.