ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 2, 2008

JOHNSON LAUDS NEW MEAT INSPECTION PROGRAM

WAHPETON – Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson says a little-recognized section of the 2008 Farm Bill gives North Dakota meat processing companies a new opportunity to grow their markets and expand their operations.

“The new Farm Bill provides that state-inspected meat and poultry products will be able to be certified for interstate transport and sale,” Johnson said. “Up until now, state-inspected meat products could only be sold on a wholesale or retail basis in their state of origin.”

Johnson spoke Wednesday morning at a news conference in Wahpeton. Also participating in the news conference were U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy and Ted Mauch and John Kuchera, owners of Bridgemart Meats, Wyndmere.

Johnson said the Farm Bill creates a new, optional program that provides federal oversight of state-inspected facilities with up to 25 employees that want to ship products across state lines. State inspection programs, such as North Dakota’s, will continue to maintain their current cooperative agreements with the federal government that require state programs to be at least “equal to” federal requirements.

"The safety of state-inspected meat and poultry products has never been in question,” Johnson said. “The new program simply provides smaller, state-inspected companies the opportunity to market and sell their products across state lines. This was an issue of fairness and common sense – not safety."

Johnson credited North Dakota’s congressional delegation, especially Congressman Earl Pomeroy, with ensuring that the new provisions for state-inspected meat products were part of the 2008 Farm Bill. The measure was strongly supported by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).

“As president of NASDA, I traveled to Washington to testify and to meet with both supporters and opponents of state meat inspection to work out a compromise,” Johnson said. “The opposition was very determined and very well connected, but Earl Pomeroy made it clear that interstate sales of state-inspected products would be in the law. He helped make it happen.”

Johnson said it will take up to 18 months before the new program is in place, but that some North Dakota meat processing companies are already looking forward to participating in it.

“Ted Mauch and John Kuchera of Bridgemart Meats have been part of the state-inspection program since 2005,” Johnson said. “They want to get their beef and pork products into Minnesota and South Dakota. The new legislation will let them do that.”

Johnson said other North Dakota meat processing companies should consider taking part in the new program.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for our state-inspected processing plants,” he said. “They will finally be able to market their products anywhere in the country and compete on an even playing field with other domestic and foreign products.”

North Dakota currently has 13 meat processing plants certified under the State Meat and Poultry Inspection Program. In addition, the program inspects approximately 95 custom-exempt plants that slaughter and process meat owned by the customer.

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MEDIA: For more information, please call Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov or Patrice Lahlum at (701) 239-7210 or plahlum@nd.gov.