Regulatory changes ahead for certified livestock farmer
Producer-specific abattoirs or butchers are those that organic operators (businesses or farmers) use, but which are not registered with an organic certification body.
Organic farmers who use a local, ‘unregistered’ butcher and direct-sell their meat will also be affected. Local, producer-specific abattoirs or butchers must now be inspected by an organic certification body. The cost for this will be borne by the licencee, that is, the farmer.
According to organic certification body IOFGA’s Mary Lynch, “it was always the case that the producer-specific abattoirs and butchers could be inspected by IOFGA inspectors, and that cost must be borne by the producers using the facility.”
IOFGA has notified farmers of the need for inspections of unregistered butchers.
Thus far, as well as adhering to the organic standards for livestock and processing, these farmers maintained records for inspection. They also informed the certification body of all necessary animal and processing details. Other procedures in place included slaughtering certified organic animals first, in the morning, before any other animals.
However, there was no standardised regime of inspection of butchers not registered with an organic certification body. According to IOFGA certification manager, Angela Clarke, “this should have been carried out over the past number of years. However it was not implemented by IOFGA.
“This is to ensure the integrity of the organic product. The whole process, from the farmer to the end consumer, must be inspected to ensure this integrity.”
She said that the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are adamant that this must take place. “This issue was discussed in great detail at the forum meetings with all certification bodies, so this is not just an IOFGA decision.”
Direct-selling farmers who currently work with their preferred, local-but-unregistered butcher will have some decisions to make. They will have to either convince their butcher to accept this new regime, or they will have to change to a butcher registered with an organic certification body.
The literature recently sent to IOFGA members states that the farmer will have to carry the cost of the inspection. However, according to Mary Lynch, there may be ways to minimise the costs to the farmer. “If both IOFGA and Organic Trust members are using the facility, then the premises would be inspected every second year by each organic certification body. Therefore, the cost to the producer can be reduced, if they use a facility that another organic producer is also using.”
She said the paperwork requirements are not onerous. “Butchers and abattoirs are well used to the paper work that is involved with slaughtering livestock, and the inspector will be checking existing paperwork and not asking for any new paperwork to be generated.”
She said “they are mainly checking that the animals from the producer were killed at the premises, and the weight of meat processed for the organic producer, so that can be checked against the sales details of the producer.”
Beyond inspections, discussions are under way between the organic certification bodies and the department to establish at what stage a producer specific abattoir/butcher should become registered in their own right. “This will probably depend on the number of animals being processed by the facility, or the number of producers using any one facility,” said Mary Lynch.
“If a large number of animals are being processed by a facility, records for the organic producers should be kept, and made available to the inspector, and then the cost should be borne by the owners of the facility, not the producer.”
Sheep and beef farmers I have spoken to, both in conversion and fully certified, have voiced concerns about this new situation, which I will outline here next week.
