Market Farming

["Andy Lee & Pat Foreman" <goodearth AT rockbridge.net>]

>

>  In VA I
> think the "limit" is 2000, it is less here but I don't know how many.

One of the things I find most annoying on this list, is the number of people
who offer an opinion without either the experience or knowledge to back it
up. If you don't know the answer, then please don't guess. It wastes our
time
with conjecture, and is confusing, misleading and downright unfair.

The example above is a case in point, when you "think" you know something it
is often untrue.
In VA the "limit" is 1,000 birds for farm exemption, and 20,000 birds for
facility exemption.

This list has a tremendous amount of misinformation, most of which I ignore.
But, this poultry thing is serious business to me and its important that
information is factual.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service Public Law 90-492
is the over-riding document in poultry processing regulation. However,
nearly 1/2 of the states
did not adopt the law. And, many states have health codes to regulate
poultry processing
as well. It's not a simple issue. The only way any of us can know for sure
where
we stand is to go to our state agriculture department and state health
department and
ask them for documentation on what they are regulating, and how they are
enforcing
those regulations.

I moved my farm business to Virginia specifically because (irregardless
about what Joel Salatin says) it is easy to do a on-farm poultry business
here, and the market potential is vast.

I first read the documents that I got from
the state meat and poultry inspector, then I had a meeting with him and with
the federal inspector,
in which I had 15 written questions asking for clarification. They could not
answer the questions, so they forwarded my letter to FSIS in Washington DC.
FSIS sent back answers to 14 of the questions, and advised they would
further research the other question. Anyone who wants a copy of the
questions and the answers contained in those letters can send me $2 for
photocopying and postage.

In the meantime, the Virginia meat and poultry inspector helped me design my
new USDA-approved poultry processing facility to be the "least-cost,
most-efficient" for small-scale on-farm processing. He has a certain amount
of discretion in the design, which will enable me to save about $10,000 in
the total cost. Everything they asked for was something I wanted to do
anyway. Hot water,
bathroom for the crew, shower, office, screens on the windows and doors,
washable walls-ceiling-floor, are all things that make a clean, pleasant
place to work, in which I can earn a substantial portion of my annual farm
income.

Andy Lee