Wyoming Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, is the main sponsor of a legislative bill proposal that would allow direct-to-consumer sales of uninspected meat products in the state, pending federal authorization.
“This is for all intents and purposes a trigger bill,” Salazar said when he outlined the details of the Wyoming PRIME Act in the Wyoming Senate this month. “The U.S. Congress has the federal PRIME Act currently before them. This (state law) cannot take effect until Congress passes it.”
‘Get their act together’
By approving the Wyoming PRIME Act, Salazar said state lawmakers would be “telling Congress to get their act together and pass the federal PRIME Act” – a piece of legislation that U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., has cosponsored.
The proposed state law would “give greater freedom to our farmers and ranchers” by allowing them to “sell their meat products without USDA approval,” Salazar said, though he noted that the meat still needs to be processed by a “Wyoming slaughterhouse which is inspected by the state.”
The bill also allows “local dollars to stay within the community,” he said, and it can “help with those inflation rates” that are affecting “so many people who are challenged by the price of beef.”
“Food is going up in cost,” Salazar said. “I think this is one of the avenues that we might be able to actually control the costs with local food.
“People want to purchase local food. They want those dollars to stay in their local community to contribute to the community as a whole. So this is really a win-win.”
The Wyoming PRIME Act has “a great deal of support,” he added, as demonstrated by its success in the Wyoming Senate, where it passed 28-1 on third reading Feb. 21.
The bill also received favorable comments from representatives of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association when it was presented in front of the Senate Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee this month.
The proposal was introduced in the Wyoming House on Feb. 22 and referred to the House Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee for consideration.
Restrictions
The Wyoming PRIME Act adds an exception to the portion of state statute that says transactions under the Wyoming Food Freedom Act “shall not involve the sale of meat products.”
The new exception is for “the sale of meat products” that aren’t “prohibited by federal law.”
The bill says those meat products must be “raised by the producer” and “slaughtered on the premises of the producer or at a custom slaughter facility” – defined as “a slaughter facility that does not have a state or federal inspector on duty” and where “any meat produced (is) not considered state or federally inspected meat products.”
The meat products must also be “produced from animals that are raised, slaughtered, processed and sold in Wyoming,” according to the bill, and they must be “sold directly to an informed end consumer in Wyoming, whether for consumption on or off the premises.”
In addition, “a prominent written warning statement shall be delivered to the informed end consumer at the time of sale,” the bill states, “or the warning may be displayed on a label affixed to the meat product packaging.”
The warning must note that “the meat product has not been inspected and is not regulated” and that the purchaser cannot “sell, donate or commercially redistribute the meat,” according to the bill; the warning must also include “information describing the standards used by the producer with respect to animal health and in the processing of meat from the animal.”
Finally, the bill says, “the producer shall not publish any statement associated with the meat specified in this subsection that implies the Wyoming Department of Agriculture’s approval or endorsement of meat delivered under this subsection.”
Wyoming Reps. Ember Oakley and Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, are both cosponsors on the legislation.