The Direct Interstate Retail Exemption for Certain Transactions (DIRECT) Act — which would give livestock and poultry producers greater access to consumers nationwide — was reintroduced Thursday. It would create a narrow exemption to allow small producers and butchers greater flexibility for interstate sales without compromising food safety or jeopardizing market access in international trade.
This legislation introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) would increase marketing opportunities for smaller meat processors and give consumers more options to buy local beef.
“The last thing our livestock producers need is more red tape,” Marshall says. “Like many states, Kansas has strong meat inspection standards that already meet federal requirements. By creating a simple exemption, the DIRECT Act uplifts our ranchers by empowering them to sell their high-quality beef in innovative ways and across state lines.”
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has announced its continued support for the DIRECT Act.
“The cattle business benefits greatly from expanding marketing opportunities, and the DIRECT Act opens the door to the growing number of cattle producers who seek to grow their market across state lines,” says NCBA President and Nebraska cattleman Buck Wehrbein. “The increased market exposure for those cattlemen and women who are selling beef direct to consumers adds value and provides tremendous benefit for our farmers and ranchers.”
The DIRECT Act would allow state-inspected meat processors to sell beef across state lines, in limited quantities and through e-commerce, direct to consumers. The bill also protects food safety by ensuring a paper trail exists for tracing and containing potential food safety issues. Many of these direct-to-consumer marketing methods have rapidly increased in popularity during the last several years and consumers have recognized the convenience of buying local beef online.
“Ever since the Biden administration, Alabama’s farmers and livestock producers have been struggling to survive. Cutting red tape and providing our cattle and livestock producers with additional avenues to sell their Made in the U.S. products is a win,” Tuberville says. “We must ensure we are putting American farmers and livestock producers first, not last. I’m proud to join Senator Marshall in this legislation to support our family farms, small meat producers, and provide consumers easy access to all-American meat.”
A version of the DIRECT Act was introduced in the House as H.R. 547 in the 117th Congress (2021-22). A later version was introduced in the Senate as S. 1512 (in the 118th Congress, 2023-24).
“As we look at markets now and into the future, we should explore every opportunity to help family farms and ranches succeed. The DIRECT Act does just that,” Hyde-Smith adds. “It would give meat and poultry producers a safe, straightforward way to sell to consumers directly by making federal regulations work for them, not against them.”
According to the press release from Marshall’s office, many states, such as Vermont and Kansas, have state meat and poultry inspection (MPI) programs approved as at least equivalent to the standards established under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA). These programs are overseen through audits by the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to ensure there are no food safety concerns.
State inspection is often less expensive and preferable to very small processors.
MPI programs require food safety plans — Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) — and, similar to federally inspected processors, have inspectors on-site.
The release explains six facts about the DIRECT Act, which would:
- Amend the retail exemption under the FMIA and PPIA to allow processors, butchers or other retailers to sell normal retail quantities (300 lb. of beef, 100 lb. of pork, 27.5 lb. of lamb) of MPI state-inspected meat online to consumers across state lines.
- Allow new direct-to-consumer options for producers, processors and small meat markets.
- Allow retail sales to consumers, minimizing the risk for further processing in export, keeping equivalency agreements with trading partners intact.
- Allow states operating under the Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) system to ship and label as they are currently.
- Prohibit the export of the MPI product.
- Not allow custom exempt processors to ship meat in interstate commerce.
Full text of the bill is available here.
Your Next Read: Direct-To-Consumer Act Would Aid Beef Producers
