Comment from John Doe

I think state inspected plants that follow a haccp program and comply with regulations set forth by the state should be able to ship products anywhere in the united states. product thats edible for 500,000 people in one state, should be edible for 500,000 people in the next state. (It's black or its white, there is no grey area). I find it odd that a bussiness can come into our state and buy product and take it back to their store in their state and sell it anywhere they wish, however we can not take that same product and deliver it to their bussiness. We have lost a lot of bussiness with small colleges, nursing homes, small hospitals, etc... because they all sign contracts with foodservice management groups that require you to be able to service units in neighboring states. I don't understand why our product is just fine for the people in our state but not for people a block across the state line. I also don't understand how a little retail meat shop can ship 60,000 lb. of beef, 100,000 lb. chicken etc... to restaurants and any other organization without any meat inspection at all. State or Federal inspected meat products are either safe to eat or they are unsafe to eat no matter where they are distributed. Plants should not have to under go strict stipulations without having the option to return to state inspection if they wish. It seems like the program is written to deter not help small plants, in hope they don't want to deal with all the stipulations. Why is it so hard for the federal inspection to allow approved state programs that follows strict guide lines to be accepted for interstate shipments????? The little family owned plant just don't have the money the large packers have to put into the politicians and the lawers pockets. It's sad to say this is not an equal oppertunity country.