More than half the states have a state slaughterhouse inspection program that can take the place of USDA inspections but the meat can only be sold within that state. I found a farm near me that does their own processing and sells direct from the farm. Prices are in line with the grocery store which unfortunately still means $18/lb for ribeye. It’s understandable since they have to have a retail store which adds cost.
The problem is, very few grocery store chains operate only in one state. That means they have to buy from one of the big four, Tyson, Cargill, JBS & National Beef.
USDA meat processors are required to have a full time USDA inspector at all times at a cost of $80k per year.
If every state had state inspection programs, maybe things would change as far as logistics and distribution but that would require grocery stores to put in more effort plus tiny states in the Northeast just don’t have the livestock.
Since the congress has the power of the Interstate Commerce Clause, they could fix things. Problem is, it’s congress we’re talking about and they rarely if ever fix things.
We buy a half (used to be a whole when we had kids at home) beef from a local farmer and have it cut and wrapped by a local butcher. You have to save up to shell out $1600 bucks for 600lbs of meat at a time and have a chest freezer.
But do the math, we paid $2.67/lb and that includes the t-bone and rib eye.
The manager at our local Safeway meat department would love to source his beef locally, if only corporate would allow it.
Every state has food inspectors for restaurants so they could pretty much take over processor inspections overnight if the Feds got out of it. Allowing any and all vets to do the live animal health inspections before slaughter would be a simple solution to the inspector bottleneck.
And you’re right, Congress never solves anything because they are usually skimming $$$ through shell LLC’s servicing gov’t contracts or taking bribes via campaign contributions or stock “tips” or jobs for their relatives.