State Meat Inspection Program

The Public Policy Center and Professor Sam Cordes of the UNL Department of Agricultural Economics analyzed the potential for developing a state meat inspection program in Nebraska. The study was conducted at the request of the legislature's Agriculture Committee. Professor Lyn Kathlene of the UNL Department of Political Science provided methodological and analytical assistance to the project.

Since 1907, federal law mandated the inspection of all slaughter and processing establishments engaging in interstate sales of meat and poultry products. In the late 1960's, Congress expanded the Federal Meat and Poultry Inspection Acts to also require inspection of establishments selling within state lines. At that time, Congress intended for individual states to take on the responsibility for monitoring intra-state meat and poultry sales, using standards "at least equal to" the Federal guidelines for interstate establishments.

For the study, officials from states with and without state meat and poultry inspection programs were surveyed. Interviews were also conducted with state inspection officials and with processors from Kansas and Minnesota, two proximate states with programs of longer (KS) and shorter (MN) durations.

The Nebraska Pork Producers Association and the Nebraska Cooperative Development Center provided partial funding for the project.

The report "Potential Impacts of State Meat and Poultry Inspection for the State of Nebraska," was submitted to the Agriculture Committee of the Nebraska Unicameral in May 2001.