The Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation has offered "strong support" for a bill that will help local farmers by transferring oversight of meat and poultry slaughtering facilities from the state Department of Public Health to the Department of Agricultural Resources.
The bill, which was filed in February by state Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, was discussed Thursday before the Joint Committee of Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture.
More than 90 years old, the bureau has 6,200 members from 3,500 farms.
As the demand for poultry and red meat grows, Brad Mitchell, director of government affairs for the Marlborough-based bureau, said it is "difficult for growers to take advantage of this market because of a shortage of slaughter and processing facilities" in the state.
In a statement to the joint committee, the bureau wrote there are just two U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved red meat slaughter facilities in the Bay State and no such facilities for slaughtering poultry.
The shortage of slaughter facilities makes transporting animals across the state or to other sites so costly it cuts into profits and makes it harder to produce certain cuts of meat, particularly for high-end markets.
While the DPH does a good job ensuring meat is safe, the bureau believes it has imposed "regulatory barriers" to creating more meat processing facilities.
Mitchell said the Department of Agricultural Resources has a "long and successful history" of working with farmers and assisting their economic development.
He said four New England states have adopted similar legislation, including Maine where the number of slaughterhouses doubled within a few years.
Mitchell said, "We need to tailor some of the rules so small farms can prosper."