Joseph Norman

New Hampshire is a rare gem in terms of home and small scale production. My family does some home production, and the rest of our diet we aim to buy as much from local farms as possible -- which turns out to be a lot of the total food we purchase. I also enjoy helping neighbors who are producers when I can. One of the things I learned when I began helping neighbors was the requirement to go to a USDA processing plant in order to sell meat to the public. My first experience with this had us crossing the border into Vermont to satisfy this requirement. This is crazy. Firstly, we do not need to bring the federal government into me purchasing my meat from my neighbor. Secondly, the USDA plants are NOT necessarily the best by ANY means. I have found small producers put much more care and attention into their processes than the more industrial counterparts. By a long shot. I would prefer my purchased meat to be processed by my neighbors. Better for me and my family. And, frankly, better for the animals. They live great lives on our small farms... then they get shipped off to what must be an unsettling final day in an unfamiliar industrial-style plant. Please pass this common sense bill.