MS Department of Agriculture Supports Small Farmers & Consumer Access to Healthy Food

Dear Policy Makers at the Mississippi Department of Agriculture,

Update Mississippi Food Policy to reflect the resurgence of small farmers!

Federal regulations provide an exemption for poultry farmers who process less than 20,000 birds a year, because it is understood that smallscale farmers should not be subject to the same requirements as enormous poultry facilities. In surrounding states farmers who fall under this exemption are allowed to sell those birds at off-farm retail locations provided farmers follow all safety regulations in processing and provided they obtain a mobile retail license. Mississippi's regulations do not allow farmers to sell their poultry at off-farm locations. They say farmers operating under the exemption may only sell from their farms which significantly cuts them off from their customers.

We want Mississippi's regulations to look like other states' regulations so that our farmers can sell poultry at farmers markets, through buying clubs, through CSAs, and at other off-farm locations so that we, as customers, have easy access to fresh, local, healthy food. We want to grow our local food and fiscal economy! We can't do this if the regulations are outdated. 

We know the MS Department of Agriculture supports small and large farmers! The issue is that, in recent years, there have been no small poultry processors in the state. The regulations were appropriate because they fit large processing facilities. Now that small farmers are having an exciting resurgence, our regulations need to be updated to reflect this change.

We, as food consumers in Mississippi, petition the MS Department of Agriculture to make the following changes to poultry processing and retail regulations:

Petition to Amend MDAC Retail Food Store Sanitation Regulations

WHEREAS, the Federal Poultry Products Inspection Act (the “PPIA”) allows intrastate transportation and sale of poultry slaughtered and processed under certain exemptions set forth at 9 CFR Part 381, Subpart C, § 381.10 (the “Federal Exemptions”); and

WHEREAS, all of Mississippi’s neighboring states allow poultry processed under a federal exemption to be transported and sold in intrastate commerce without a “bird-by-bird” inspection; and

WHEREAS, the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce (the “MDAC”) has adopted the PPIA, including the Federal Exemptions, at Miss. Agri. Regs. Subpart 4, Ch. 7, § 110.01; and

WHEREAS, the Retail Food Store Sanitation regulations promulgated by the MDAC at Miss. Agri. Regs.  Subpart 4, Ch. 1, § 100.04(2) require that all poultry products offered for sale at retail food establishments and farmers markets must bear marks of inspection from the appropriate state or federal inspection program; and

WHEREAS, the foregoing regulations are vague and ambiguous, such that current interpretation of these regulations by the MDAC results in the prohibition of sales of poultry processed under the Federal Exemptions to duly licensed retail food establishments and direct to consumers at farmers markets and other venues; and

WHEREAS, such interpretation of the retail food store sanitation regulations substantially deviates from Mississippi’s neighboring states, threatens the economic viability and existence of small Mississippi farmers by forcing them to limit sales of their federally exempted poultry products to sales only from their farms, and is a severe burden to the thousands of customers of small Mississippi farmers due to the requirement that they travel to such farms to purchase such poultry products;

NOW, THEREFORE, the undersigned residents of the State of Mississippi hereby petition the Honorable Cindy Hyde-Smith, Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce for the State of Mississippi, pursuant to the authority vested in her at § 75-33-5 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, to amend the following regulations as follows (amended language in italics):

Miss. Agri. Regs., Subpart 4, Ch. 1

100.04.  Retail Sale of Poultry Products.

1.            . . . [unamended]

2.            Requirements.

a.       All poultry products offered for sale at a retail food establishment, as defined in Miss. Code Ann. § 69-1-18, shall be slaughtered, and processed under poultry inspection programs administered by the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce or the United States Department of Agriculture.  These products shall bear marks of inspection from the appropriate program, unless such products were slaughtered and processed under an exemption from the appropriate poultry inspection program, and in such a case, shall bear all labeling as required by the appropriate program.

b.      All poultry products offered for sale by a vendor at a farmers market must be sold by a vendor who holds a retail mobile food establishment license from the Department.  The poultry products must bear marks of inspection from a poultry inspection program administered by the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce or the United States Department of Agriculture, unless such products were slaughtered and processed under an exemption from the appropriate poultry inspection program, and in such a case, shall bear all labeling as required by the appropriate program.

3.            Labeling.  In addition to marks of inspection or exemption therefrom, poultry products shall be labeled as required under the rules and regulations of the appropriate inspection program.