Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a technique for process control similar to what I’ve used for decades. It’s a good idea and required is for federally inspected meat processing plants (slaughter, butcher, smoking, etc). In the new USDA Small Plant newsletter I ran across this paragraph which is a little alarming:
The next frontier for the agency in meat and poultry food safety may be outside inspected establishments. [William “Bill” Smith, FSIS’ Assistant Administrator for Program Evaluation, Enforcement and Review] feels FSIS has largely succeeded in getting inspected operators under HACCP systems. He sees the next big development as extending HACCP-like controls over hazards to which meat and poultry are exposed during transport, storage, and at retail. “The original concept was that HACCP would deal with food safety hazards farm-to-table,” said Smith. “We have a ways to go on that.”
-USDA/FSIS Small Plant News July 2008
The implication, no, the statement is the USDA wants to gain control from our farms all the way to our tables. While I see a lot of value to HACCP in our slaughter, butchering and smoking of meat I don’t want their inspectors hovering over my shoulder as I cook dinner for my family. I also don’t want to see them jarring the elbow of someone growing their own food or for neighbors. Even implementing it at the retail level is questionable and will result in higher food prices with even less going into the pocket of farmers.
We need limits to government - it’s called the Constitution.
Walter, Agreed! When ever the USDA has an idea to “improve” an existing or pending rule we the people get burned! I see too that USDA has released its program due Sept30 for the new COOL regs,It seems that they “may” have watered them down a bit? Do you have any info or thoughts on that,thanks!
Comment LEE — August 2, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
So they’re going to start going after bad cooks? “You didn’t cook that meat long enough; it’s a food safety hazard.” How will they decide between the hazards of undercooked meat, as requested by those who like it rare, and overcooked meat with its dioxin?
Instead of developing a government policy mandating a particular level of “doneness”, why not simply let the poor guy who has to eat it decide? Oh, wait, he’s not a bureaucrat, so he isn’t “qualified” to make a decision. FAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHH!
(This comment was not approved by any government official, and, in fact, they would probably disapprove strongly of its anti-regulatory bias.) :D
Comment Ray Johnson — August 3, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
Very recently, I have heard a USDA public service announcement on a couple of radio stations in our area - one an npr station, the other a ‘clear channel’ commercial station.
The gist of the clip is that ‘if you know of anyone selling or smuggling chickens or chicken bi-products outside of regulated retail outlets you need to report such activity to USDA through your state vet’s office’.
I’ve heard this clip in South Dakota and in North Dakota.
The Hutterite Communities in the Dakotas have sold freshly dressed whole chickens, geese, turkeys, and ducks for many years in the Dakotas. There are Hutterite Communities in both states.
Many ‘town’ folk have enjoyed this service. The product is wonderful. They use no anti-biotic feed or treated water so the cooked meat does have a shorter ’shelf life’ than the corporate products. The turkeys were shaped like real turkeys, too.
For several years we met ‘the chicken man’ in the nearest town to our farm where he would fill orders from his refrigerated truck. Being very industrious and working as an entire group the chickens were killed, cleaned, and delivered on the same day - before noon.
For the past year ‘the chicken man’ has not visited our town. I asked the older lady in town who took poultry orders what had happened. She said she wasn’t sure. She was told they were no longer allowed to sell their chickens across state lines.
There isn’t anything along the state line except a few concrete markers. There are one or two towns with populations of less than 1000, but that’s about it. Our nearest town - less than 30 miles from the border - has around 2500 so that was a good place to sell chickens. There is only one grocery store. They sell is Tyson.
I haven’t figured out what the ‘chicken bi-products’ are. Do you think they mean eggs?
Comment donna — August 3, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
Chicken smugglers??? Run for your life!!
Donna, call those radio stations and ask, rather DEMAND, equal air time. They are not performing a public service, they are normalizing tattle tale behavior and need to be told that. It WILL only get worse if people bow down.
What those radio stations are doing is trading sanity for funding. If you remember which stations, post the info. here…maybe some of US will call them.
Find the chicken man, get hundreds of people to buy from them, film it and post it on the internet…Have a big sign that says WE SUPPORT CHICKEN SMUGGLERS. Hold the chicken smuggling festival literally right on the border between the two states, ask the offending radio stations if they want to cover the event.
Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200…chicken smuggling a very serious crime indeed!
Comment Bob Constantine — August 4, 2008 @ 7:20 am
Donna, Bob is right!People should drive down there and buy some if they are not allowed to cross the ” Dakota police state line” and keep supporting these people,if at all possible. If you know how to get the info,please do, I will make sure it gets passed on to the network I work with and to several elected persons who are looking into NAIS as well so they can see this stupidity. I have no problem telling them they are goofy and then proving it!thanks!
“Live free or die tryin”
Comment LEE — August 4, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
yup while those dangerous chicken smugglers have been put out of business, the meth labs in the same area continue to fire up and distribute their much safer product for the kids….
what is the name of those radio stations?…as little as i have to spare i want to give them a piece of my mind !!!
Comment esbee — August 4, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
So, speaking of chickens….at Celeste Bishops site, she has posted on August 2nd this article she titled:”Hunt for the Elusive NFLO “Poultry ben Layin”….you can find her website by looking at the right sidebar here, under Featured Blogs…it is: WA NoNAISWA.org Under Homeland Security it is some program using the extension service to use community resources to gain ways to make contact with the “non-commercial poultry owner”….using churches, feedstores, kids again, etc….check it out. At her main page, you scroll down to the second page.She has lots of good information at her website.
Comment The Phantom — August 4, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
What we need are reasonable limits. OSHA only applies to businesses with (I think) more than 10 employees. Likewise NAIS, HACCP, USDA inspected, State inspected, and all sorts of other regs aught to apply only to businesses that do any of the following:
1) are larger than a certain size (10 employees is a good number);
2) sell interstate or internationally;
3) have gross sales of over some figure ($250,000? $1,000,000?) per year;
For small businesses that sell locally and don’t do that much businesses they should not be forced to follow these regulations. The regulations are too onerrous and ineffective for small scale operations. Of course if you are small and want to follow the regs you should be allowed to do so and then granted the seal of approval.
Customers can then decide to buy from Mega-Corp that is regulated, Mini-CorpA that voluntarily follows the regs and has the seal of approval, or Mini-CorpB that probably produces a great product but chooses to sell just in the local neighborhood, state, etc. Free-will is our fundimental right.
Forced regulations are the dumbing down of America. Big Brother government wants to make all our decisions because it thinks we are too stupid to make good choices. People should be allowed to choose, to make mistakes. Its called freedom.
Comment Andrew — August 5, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
Here is another argument against NAIS
NAIS, ”Guide to Good Farming Practices” and”ISO” are based on a faulty reasoning. I have seen plenty of evidence of this in thirty-five years as a Quality Engineer.
ISO 9000 and similar certification schemes do not add quality to a product, nor do they insure that quality is in the product. Instead, they show documentation that indicates the methods by which the product was supposed to have been made and nothing more.
To rely upon certification or traceability as an indicator of quality misses the mark entirely. Ultimately, quality is determined by the end user, the consumer, regardless of the standards, the documentation, or the adherence to specifications. The end user can see the truth, “It’s no good; I cannot use it,” or even, “Dear God! It just killed me.”
See this article: systems thinkingfor a discussion of the origins of ISO 9000, what is wrong with it, and why. Admiral Hyman Rickover was concerned with bad quality that resulted from bad management. ISO 9000 addresses conformity to standards instead of improvement of management. The Japanese who were trained by Dr. Demming in QUALITY IMPROVEMENT do not endorse ISO.
Consider a choice between a product Certified by Underwriters Laboratories or ISO certified? Which has actually been tested by an impartial third party? I have yet to work for a company who did not falsify quality data. Do you really want to bet your life on falsified data?
Comment Snazy snezy — August 7, 2008 @ 10:36 am
in my town the chicken smuggler ad is aired about every two hours.i just wonder how many tax payer dollars are being spent on this ad trying to get our neighbors to morph into rats telling on each other.i bet it will be millions,dont look for illegal aliens being smuggled into the country,just illegal chickens.
Comment nick — August 12, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
Nick, Where can we listen to this chicken ad?
Comment Bamidbar — August 14, 2008 @ 8:15 am
bamidbar,you might call 1-866-536-7593,ask them what radio station in your area might be running this ad on smuggling birds into this country.to stir their interest tell them that you might have a lead.
Comment nick — August 14, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
The only chicken smugglers I worry about are the ones form Mexico since that is where the newcastle outbreak in California came from. On another note; in the recent Western Horseman mag. the letters commenting on the NAIS article from June were all against NAIS. That is just the kind of publicity needed to bring this horrible program into the light. A lot of horse owners I’ve talked to thought that NAIS was designed to reunite animals and owners in cases of disasters and to inform animal owners of disease out breaks so they could better protect their own animals. A lot of them were shocked and did not want to believe the USDA were willing to harm and/or kill their beloved horses for the sake of “food safety”
Comment Lorene — August 27, 2008 @ 4:05 pm