USDA-Disapproved

JENNY DRAKE was a Virginia state health inspector until five years ago, when she and her husband moved to rural Tennessee and started Peaceful Pastures, a small livestock farm. They raise free-range beef, pork, turkey, veal, lamb, goat, duck, and chicken— without jacking the animals up with hormones and antibiotics, as is common practice at factory farms. Their meat goes through a USDA processing facility, as government regulations require—all except the poultry. And because of those chickens, the Peaceful Pastures have been troubled. Therein lies a tale about government regulation, the decline in food quality, and the end of family farming in America.

“The state says no bird in Tennessee can be sold without USDA inspection of the processing facilities,” says Drake. “Here’s what kills all of us small poultry farmers: There are no USDA custom-kill processing plants in the entire Southeast.”

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Rod Dreher

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Department of Agriculture

JENNY DRAKE was a Virginia state health inspector until five years ago, when she and her husband moved to rural Tennessee and started Peaceful Pastures, a small livestock farm. They raise free-range beef, pork, turkey, veal, lamb, goat, duck, and chicken— without jacking the animals up with hormones and antibiotics, as is common practice at factory farms. Their meat goes through a USDA processing facility, as government regulations require—all except the poultry. And because of those chickens, the Peaceful Pastures have been troubled. Therein lies a tale about government regulation, the decline in food quality, and the end of family farming in America.

“The state says no bird in Tennessee can be sold without USDA inspection of the processing facilities,” says Drake. “Here’s what kills all of us small poultry farmers: There are no USDA custom-kill processing plants in the entire Southeast.”