A recent survey among Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) members indicates that members’ top concerns include the unavailability of meat processors and regulations that interfere with the ability of farmers and ranchers to deliver farm products directly to the consumer. The Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act would repeal the ban on the intrastate sale of…
Food Rights News
County Tax Commissioner Wastes $26,000 Fighting Small Farmer Over Serving Size Definition
Chris Couch owns and manages Dreaming Tree Farms, a small farm outside of Richmond, Virginia that sells prepackaged salad kits for a weekly-delivered subscription service under the name Farm-To-Salad. He started out as a hobby farmer in 2009 and in 2017 decided to leave his job as a management consultant to pursue a more fulfilling career growing healthy food for his community…
Small Farms Can Help Address Food Waste
The stunning food waste that is one of many unexpected consequences of COVID-19 has made us all painfully aware of how highly vulnerable industrial farms are to sudden fluctuations in demand and pullbacks on the regular flow of commerce…
There’s the Rub: Intro to Regulations for Small Meat Processors
For our purposes, a rub is the difference between what regulations require and what FSIS wants but cannot require. FSIS Consumer Safety Inspectors (CSI) are taught FSIS policy; what FSIS wants. Establishments mistakenly think that what the CSI tells them is what regulations require. There’s the rub…
Local Government Tries to Shut Down Virginia Farm
Our whole fiasco with the government trying to shut our farm down came on a Monday in mid-March and began with a call from one of our chefs we sell to. He notified us that the local Loudon County health inspector came into his restaurant, impound stickers in hand, and…