OPEN LETTER TO YOUR CONGRESSMAN

            Dear sir or madam:

             If we learned anything from this spring, it is the vulnerability of centralized amalgamated industrial mega-scale meat and poultry processing facilities versus the resiliency of small, local abattoirs.  Yet the USDA stacks the National Advisory Board on Meat and Poultry Inspection with overseers hostile to small abattoirs. This is a matter of national security and survival.

             Greg Gunthorp, small abattoir owner in Indiana,  has alerted me to the just-released committee names, which include not one but two seats for large foreign-owned corporations.  I agree with his use of the word "atrocious" to describe the blatant cronyism toward fragile mega-scale on the one hand, and the ostracism toward resilient small and very small processors on the other hand.

             The two seats have been given to Brazilian-owned JBS; one outright and the other through its subsidiary, Pilgrim's Pride.  If you'll recall, JBS went through a nasty bribing sandal in 2017 (see NYT, Mar. 17, 2017).   According to Brazil's Federal Police the company "paid federal inspectors to ignore the adulteration or expiration of processed foods" and these "inspectors also falsified sanitary permits. . . ."   And now these people are going to set policy for the U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS)?  Have you heard of the fox guarding the henhouse?

             In addition, the industry trade group North American Meat Institute also got a seat.  Does the USDA demonstrate prejudice against small plants ignorantly or on purpose? Furthermore, the cozy relationship between academia and corporate bigwigs is well known; surely there is room for a couple of seats for small processors. But alas, USDA has no room for such community-minded facilities at the table.  Here is the list:

 Mr. Thomas Gremillion
Consumer Federation of America

 Mr. James Jenkins
Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry

 Dr. Amilton De Mello
University of Nevada

 Ms. Tina Rendon
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp

 Ms. Kimberly Rice
U.S. Foods

 Dr. Jimmy L. Avery
Mississippi State University

 Mr. William H. Battle
Pride of the Pond and Battle Fish North

 Ms. Tina Conklin
Michigan State University

 Dr. Patricia Ann Curtis
North Carolina State University

 Dr. Jennifer A. Eberly
Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry

 Mrs. Casey Lynn Gallimore
North American Meat Institute

 Dr. Joseph Jay Harris
Southwest Meat Association

 Dr. Curtis Lynn Knipe
Ohio State University

 Dr. Byron Williams
Mississippi State University

 Ms. Sherri L. Williams
JBS USA, LLC

                       Begging your pardon, but I don't see anyone on this list who is friendly toward or represents community-based smaller processing plants.  If this is not a prime example of protecting the fraternity of fragile mega-processing, I don't know what is.  Now, Congressperson, what are you going to do about it?  I'd like to know.  And please do not send me a tepid reply template.  Thank you.

             Respectfully,

             All of us who want a secure, safe U.S. food supply