PRIME ACT IS IN

The Farm Bill, which is now long overdue and supposedly on tap to be voted on in the next couple of months, still contains Congressman Thomas Massie's PRIME ACT.  All of us fighting for food freedom have watched with consternation as his amendment suffers the vicissitudes of political arm-twisting.

                  For the uninitiated, this amendment would, for the first time in half a century, enable a ribeye steak to be sold to a neighbor without federal or state inspection.  This historically normal activity has been illegal since the 1967 Wholesome Meat Act, signed Dec. 15 by President Lyndon Johnson.

                  Right now, the nation enjoys (?) three types of meat processing:  federal inspection, state inspection, and custom.  Federal inspection allows meat to be sold anywhere in the world.  State allows it to be sold anywhere in the state domiciling  the abattoir.  Custom does not allow any meat to be sold; each package must be stamped "Not For Sale."

                  Shortly after being elected the first time, Massie wrote and pushed what he called the PRIME ACT.  It would give states who wanted to allow in-state (called intrastate) sales of meat from custom butcher shops freedom to do so.  In other words, it doesn't mandate anything.  It doesn't ask for any regulations--amazing idea from legislation, no?

                  All it says is that if a state wants to allow custom slaughtered meat sales, the federal regulators will stand down and let it happen.  Wyoming is the only state, so far, to enact this freedom pre-emptively.  If the PRIME ACT makes it into the federal register, Wyoming doesn't have to wrangle about it again; freedom to sell would automatically be the law of the state. 

                  The PRIME ACT has been inserted and stripped out of the Farm Bill enough times to make a pin-ball machine blush, but right now, it's in and that's exciting.  Some folks think the Farm Bill will actually get voted on in 2026.  If it does, the PRIME ACT's existence at this late stage offers a hopeful sign.  Yes, it's been watered down with some experimental boundaries on time, but the basic idea of selling uninspected meat has been preserved.

                  While to many this may seem like an inconsequential step in food freedom, realize its significance.  The industry knows that if passed, this would legalize private party uninspected meat sale options for the first time in nearly 50 years.  Massie believes about 1,000 shuttered custom abattoirs or start-ups would open their doors within a year or so of passage.

                  In a time when meat eaters are increasingly frustrated with rising prices and farmers feel increasingly constrained by "the big four," few single-step freedoms would represent as compelling a shot across the bow of the food oligarchy. 

                  The answer to oligarchies is not antitrust activity; it's not government regulation; it's freedom for entrepreneurs to compete in the marketplace.  That's the ultimate constraint on control and power.  People who think capitalism got us where we are couldn't be more wrong.  Government intervention got us where we are; absent that we can restart a functional, competitive marketplace.

                  The PRIME ACT's survival at this late stage of the Farm Bill's evolution is a wonderfully hopeful bright light in otherwise governmental darkness.  Let's all hope it survives the final salvo from Big Ag and Big Food to strip it out.  Go, Massie.

                  Would you eat uninspected meat from a local farmer?