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Out of the Vault: Sina's Meat Shortage Solution · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Dr.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Cena McCullough.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me today.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you about the coming meat shortage.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is a meat shortage coming and it's beyond what we are already experiencing, but never fret, there is a solution, and we need your help to make that solution work.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Representative Thomas Massey has introduced a bill called the Prime Act.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Prime Act is designed to increase the availability of meat, decrease the price of meat sold from local farms, weaken the meat processing monopoly by decentralizing the meat processing plants, which will also increase the safety of the meat, and the Prime Act aims to restore constitutional authority to the states.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Prime Act was introduced five years ago.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: However, it's just now gaining traction as Americans are realizing that the industrial food system they have relied upon for their survival is actually fragile and frankly unreliable.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Consumers are now facing rationing of food in grocery stores along with food shortages, while simultaneously reading headlines about milk being dumped, chickens being foamed, broiler eggs intentionally broken to kill the chicks, and hogs being euthanized.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, all that doesn't make sense until you realize the industrial food system is rigid and unforgiving, as Joel Salatin from Polyface Farm explained in a recent interview I did with him.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically in terms of the meat processing industry, though, there are three types of slaughterhouses: federally inspected, state inspected, and custom slaughterhouses.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Prime Act addresses custom slaughterhouses.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: These are state regulated, but they are not inspected, meaning an inspector is not physically present for every animal that is processed.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to be clear, all three types of slaughterhouses are regulated.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The difference between them is the custom slaughterhouses are not, quote, under inspection, end quote.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the meat is labeled as not for sale.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, currently, that means custom slaughterhouses can only process meat for consumers who own a whole animal, half an animal, or a quarter of an animal.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: They cannot process the meat if you own a smaller portion of the animal.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, if you only want to buy a pound of ground beef or a couple T-bone steaks, a custom slaughterhouse cannot provide you with those smaller cuts of meat.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: This regulation is discriminatory against lower-income families who can't afford to purchase a whole half or even a quarter of an animal.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Prime Act intends to resolve this discriminatory regulation by allowing smaller portions of meat to be processed by custom slaughterhouses and then sold to consumers within that state.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, throughout our history, these types of federal regulations have actually driven up costs of meat and decreased availability by centralizing the meat processing industry.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: For example, more than 10,000 meat processing facilities existed in the United States in 1967.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then Congress came along and passed the Wholesome Meat Act, which was a federal law that required a USDA inspector to be present at every meat processing site, or it required inspection regimens that were at least equal to USGA requirements that had to be enacted even when the meat was not intended for sale outside of that state.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: This federal law preempted state regulations.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was an overreach of power by the federal government, and frankly, it was illegal.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Based on the original intent of the Commerce Clause, which is Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States, the federal government has authority to regulate international imports and the shipment of goods across state lines.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Commerce Clause limits the authority of the federal government by reserving the regulatory power over your food supply to the states and to the people.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Consequently, placing federal meat inspectors inside of meat processing plants is unconstitutional.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And this is confirmed by constitutional attorney Michael Smith.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, the power grab by the federal government proved to be too costly for small processors.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I said that 10,000 meat processing facilities existed in the U.S.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: when the Wholzome Meat Act was passed.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now there are less than 3,000.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Consequently, small livestock farmers sometimes have to drive their animals hours to find the nearest federally inspected slaughterhouse, even when a custom slaughterhouse might be three minutes from their farm.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: This erroneous mandate drives up the cost of local meat and it's not environmentally friendly, and the longer drives place unnecessary stress on the livestock, which results in meat that is less healthy for consumers.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, big companies love these federal regulations.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, who do you think lobbied Congress and supported such mandates designed to crush their small farm competitors?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: As a result of their lobby efforts, a monopoly formed.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Four companies now control over 80% of beef processing in the United States.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And a consequence of the centralization of the meat processing industry is not only the bottleneck that we're experiencing now with decreased availability of meat, there was also a decrease in the safety of that meat.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Statistically, foodborne illnesses stemming from meat overwhelmingly originate from slaughterhouses where a USTA inspector is on site.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: According to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and I quote, the Wholesome Meat Act has not led to the production of safer meat today.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are more recalls than ever for positive pathogen tests in meat products.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Again, all these slaughterhouses are regulated.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: But many of us have been brainwashed into believing that meat is not safe unless a government inspector is watching over the process.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was, I was one of those people until I learned how the inspection process actually works.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Would it surprise you to learn that federal inspectors test the meat using what's called a poke and sniff method?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: The inspectors literally poke a rod into the meat and then smell it.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: If it smells clean, the inspector pokes the same rod into the next slab of meat.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: An obvious flaw with this method is that you can't typically smell pathogens until they have grown large enough in number to produce a distinct odor.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, according to the Northeastern University Law Journal, and I quote, USDA inspectors undoubtedly transmitted harmful bacteria from one contaminated piece of meat to other uncontaminated pieces of meat in untold quantities, and consequently were directly responsible for sickening untold numbers of Americans by their actions.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, from a logical standpoint alone, it makes sense why larger slaughterhouses would produce more contaminated meat than smaller custom slaughterhouses.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: The more workers you cram into a slaughterhouse and the more animals you process in a day increases the probability of pathogen contamination just based on mere numbers.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the large meat processing facilities have recently made headlines in the news because they are suffering from large outbreaks of COVID-19 cases.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really want to eat meat that comes from one of those facilities?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: These erroneous federal regulations are overwhelmingly passed under the guise of increasing the safety of your meat supply.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: However, if these regulations were actually about safety, then they would not only be illegal to sell smaller cuts of meat processed in a custom slaughterhouse, it would also be illegal to give those cuts of meat away for free.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: But they cannot charge a penny for the meat.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, this is not about safety.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Prime Act lifts the erroneous restrictions so that smaller portions of meat processed by custom slaughterhouses can be sold to consumers within that state's borders.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now is the time to reclaim this food freedom that we have lost.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's end the bottleneck that was created by lobbyists and politicians that is threatening a meat shortage.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's make meat more affordable, more accessible, and safer.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's weaken the monopoly by bringing the power back to the states where it truly belongs.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's restore the constitutional right of the state to allow intrastate distribution of meat to consumers without federal inspectors on site.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thomas Massey said it best, and I quote, it is time to open our markets to give producers the freedom to succeed and consumers the freedom to choose.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Please call your representative and your senators.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Calls make the biggest impact, according to representative Thomas Massey.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So please pick up the phone and just call.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them to co-sponsor the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act or the Prime Act.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's HR 2859 and S1620.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't know who your representative is, you can find out by going to www.house.gov or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I urge you to please get involved.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great initial step in reclaiming a food freedom that most of us, including myself, didn't even know we had lost.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: All we're asking is for a phone call.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Please help us restore this food freedom.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.