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Pastured Poultry

Processing Guideline for <1,000 Released by GA Dept of Agriculture

The Georgia Department of Agriculture released a guideline [November 2011] allowing farmers to process up to 1,000 birds on-farm annually. The guideline establishes rules for processing conditions as well as direct to consumer sales (on-farm and at farmers markets).  It does not allow farmers to sell these birds to retail outlets or restaurants. Read the full guideline here

The current regulatory framework still leaves farmers who seek to process between 1,000 and 20,000 birds on-farm, under the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) guidelines, with no option. Farmers are caught between a requirement that the birds be inspected and a situation in which the state nor the FSIS will provide that inspection.

Georgia Organics has heard from over a hundred farmers throughout Georgia that we need a "path to yes" to provide for on-farm processing of up to 20,000 birds. Most states around the country allow on-farm processing, either by recognizing the federal exemption and FSIS Sanitary Standards or through state guidelines.

Read a brief description of the legal state of on-farm processing in Georgia here

Independent Georgia poultry farmers should have the same opportunities as others around the country to engage in the marketplace. Here is how we can work together to give growers a processing solution:

• We need farmers to reach out to the Department of Agriculture and ask that the full federal exemption (20,000 birds annually) be restored by contacting Commissioner Gary Black .
• Support the new Georgia Pastured Poultry Growers Association. For more information, contact gapasturedpoultry@gmail.com.
• We need to educate other policymakers - your state representative and senator - about the situation.

 

Consumers: Know What You Are Buying! Handy guide to labels here.   

 

Two other notes on pastured poultry:

In addition to the continued advocacy around on-farm processing, Georgia Organics is conducting a feasibility analysis of both a mobile processing unit and a fixed facility. Study results will be available in the spring of 2012.

Georgia Organics is also a project partner with a team out of the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety, looking at pasture-raised poultry. Research being conducted, which will greatly benefit farmers upon its completion, include food safety issues related to pastured bird processing, including on-farm. We will be sharing results as the research is completed throughout 2012 and into 2013. If you would like more information in the interim, please contact Dr. Walid Alali at walali@uga.edu