Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham will be reviewing a bill that was fully supported by New Mexican legislators, that would give the New Mexico Livestock Board authority of meat and poultry inspection within the state.
Senate Bill 37 passed both chambers of legislation with unanimous support.
Inspectors with USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service currently handling meat inspections in New Mexico only conduct a limited number of inspections annually, which leads many of the state’s ranchers to ship livestock out-of-state for processing.
On February 13th, as the House discussed the bill before giving it unanimous support, Representative Jack Chatfield, a rancher by trade, said this about the Meat Inspection Act.
“In New Mexico we raise a lot of cattle, and we ship those cattle across the line into Texas and feed them some Texas corn and some New Mexico corn. Mr. Speaker, those cattle are loaded onto a truck and hauled usually to Kansas where they are processed and Mr. Speaker, we buy the meat back for New Mexico. We just shipped out our agricultural products, we have shipped out our jobs and we have shipped out the food for our citizens. Mr. Speaker this bill will enable in-state beef inspection, that will enable more processing plants in New Mexico which means we can grow our own beef, feed with our own corn, process our own beef and consume good fresh New Mexico beef processed right here at home. Keep the job here at home, we keep the food here at home and we will not be at the whim of huge national corporations.”
Inspections conducted and certifications issued by New Mexico Livestock Board would be equivalent to or greater than those given by the USDA..
New Mexico Department of Agriculture suggests that this program could have positive effects for; food safety, timely inspection, increased efficiency, increased amount of local meat and benefit small to mid-sized producers.
