Nine months after it took effect, farmers and elected officials in Powell River are still fighting against the Ministry of Health's new Meat Inspection Regulation (MIR). Now they're hoping feasibility studies will show it's not economically possible to abide by the regulation, prompting exemptions for farmers.
"We're about to apply for a grant once it's spent, it'll prove we can't possibly implement any of their conditions," said Powell River Regional District chair Colin Palmer, who's been working with the Powell River Farmers' Institute to oppose the regulations that took effect across B.C. late last September. The regulations require all meat to be slaughtered and inspected at licensed abattoirs.
For small-scale producers who rely on "farm gate" sales - selling red meat, poultry, pork and eggs locally - the regulations criminalise what was until recently business-as-usual, said Corky Evans, the NDP MLA for Nelson-Creston and opposition critic for the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. "It's the worst thought-out piece of policy since the federal gun laws," he said. "I don't object to the need for meat to be slaughtered and inspected - I object to this regulation being brought in secretly. It takes honest people and makes them criminals."
The MIR is subordinate to the province's 2002 Food Safety Act, but as a regulation, it was not subject to parliamentary debate before it was passed. Due in part to the controversial nature of the MIR, it took more than three years after it was passed in the legislature to come into effect.
Since then, farmers who have wished to continue with farm-gate sales were told to acquire transitional (class C) licences, on the condition they could show their intent to build an abattoir, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health. While the transitional licence has no fee, Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons noted farmers are "walking into [government] log books" whenever they apply for the licence.
The regulations require all meat to be slaughtered at an approved abattoir and inspected to federal standards before it can be sold. A $20,000 grant, provided under the Meat Transition Assistance Program (MTAP), will help the Powell River farmers determine the viability of building and running an abattoir and disposing of the waste it creates.
"If the study proves the abattoir can't be economically built, we can apply for an exemption under [the transitional licence]," said Palmer. Mobile abattoirs, he added, are not practical for peninsulas like Powell River and the Sunshine Coast.
Robin Wheeler, a local food campaigner and founder of the One Straw Society, believes requiring slaughter at abattoirs could have unintended consequences.
"Now animals are mingling," she said. "When you take them to the abattoir, that's where these outbreaks occur." Evans also opines it's a case of a solution begging for a problem.
"There's no proof of anyone ever having gotten sick through farm gate sales," said Evans, a former Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries under an NDP government in the '90s.
