End the Prohibition on Onsite Beef Processing

Author: Joel Griffith, Senior Research Fellow

Affordability 101 · Chapter 5: Freedom to Innovate and Compete

Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise

Topline

Federal law bars ranchers from selling beef harvested on their own land. Instead, every market animal must be trucked to an inspected plant. Congress should legalize onsite processing for in-state sales and use its Commerce Clause power to allow state-inspected meat to cross state lines.

Background

The 1906 Federal Meat Inspection Act requires federal inspection of every animal slaughtered for commercial sale. The custom exemption in 21 U.S.C. § 623(a) allows onsite slaughter only for the owner’s household, guests, and employees. Violating this requirement is a federal crime. Allowing onsite processing would allow ranchers to compete with offsite processors, specifically the four firms purchasing roughly 84% of fed cattle. Meat from state-inspected plants held to standards “at least equal to” federal ones is still barred from interstate commerce outside an 11-state program capped at an average of 25 employees. These USDA restrictions protect processors from rancher competition rather than advancing food safety. To avoid supply-chain bottlenecks, producers now book harvest dates 12 to 24 months in advance. Ground beef retail prices set a record $6.89 per pound in July 2026, due to a combination of tariffs on agricultural inputs and ongoing drought. Allowing onsite slaughtering could boost rancher revenue while also lowering consumer costs.

Action Items (Congress and the USDA)

• Congress should enact the PRIME Act, letting states authorize onsite processing for in-state sale.
• Congress should open interstate commerce to every state-inspected plant and repeal the 25-employee average cap.
• The USDA should write appropriate rules for mobile and on-farm processing units.

How It Would Make Life More Affordable

• It would help reduce live-animal transportation costs and associated shrinkage.
• It would use competition as a check on packer margins.
  • The difference between the cost per pound of meat at the farm, packing plant, and grocery store (the farm-to-retail spread) varies primarily based on plant processing capacity, rather than consumer demand.
• USDA rule changes could provide an immediate boost in small-scale processing capacity, translating quickly to lower consumer prices.

Related Legislation: PRIME Act (S. 2409, H.R. 4700); Section 12114 (custom-exempt pilot in the House-passed farm bill, H.R. 7567).

Bottomline

A 1906 rule written for Chicago packinghouses now shields the four firms that dominate cattle buying. Ranchers should be allowed to process meat onsite.

This memo is part of Affordability 101, Advancing American Freedom’s playbook of 101 policy solutions to make life more affordable.

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