Illinois ‘chicken bill' aims to boost small poultry farms, expand access to their products

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Legislation would allow farmers to sell their poultry at farmers markets, roadside stands and through delivery
By GRACE FRIEDMANMedill Illinois News [e-mail]
SPRINGFIELD — A bill that would lift long-standing restrictions on small poultry farmers in Illinois, reducing red tape and transforming the way local farmers process and sell their products, is heading to the governor.
Under a measure dubbed the 'chicken bill,' farmers who process fewer than 7,500 birds annually would be exempt from state and federal inspections of their poultry operations or from having to send birds to USDA-approved processing facilities — an increase from the previous 5,000-bird threshold. The change, part of an update to the Illinois Meat and Poultry Inspection Act, also allows these farmers to sell their poultry beyond their own farms — including at farmers markets, roadside stands and through delivery — a major shift from earlier restrictions.
'This is important for our small farmers to be able to get their product to the community, and that's what this is all about,' said Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason, who co-sponsored the bill. The Illinois House voted 116-0 on Friday, May 30, to approve House Bill 2196, and the Senate passed it unanimously on May 22.
Turner represents a largely rural district spanning 10 counties. 'Farmers in my community, especially small farmers, are important to me, personally, but also to our whole district,' she said.
State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, a farmer himself, said the legislation provides local agriculture with a much-needed boost.
'We always want to get the freshest product to the consumer. We want them to know where it came from,' Meier said. 'So what's better than meeting the farmer who's raised those chickens, knowing where they're coming from? They're fresh, and you're getting a good, healthy product.'
Initially, the bill faced pushback from some public health groups, which argued for stricter labeling and packaging rules to ensure the safety of poultry products for consumption.
The revised bill includes mandated temperature controls during storage, transportation, shipping and delivery. Processed poultry must be packaged in sealed, leak-proof containers to prevent contamination. Each package must also be clearly labeled with the farm's name and address, the product name, net weight and a statement indicating that the poultry was processed under exemption and not inspected by state or federal authorities.
'Everything you see in that bill was done by some of the public health coalitions,' Michael Desmedt, interim director of public health for DuPage County, said. 'I think our voices were heard, and they understood our concerns.''
Ed Dubrick, a poultry farmer and policy organizer with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for sustainable agriculture, said he went around the state and asked livestock farmers what they needed to help with the processing of their animals.
Dubrick said the current exemption was too limiting because farmers could only sell 'on or from the farm.'
'Expecting someone to come to the farm every time they want some chicken just really isn't realistic,' he said. 'But if we can bring it to a farmers market where the consumers are, that adds an opportunity.'
Illinois is one of the few states without more flexible on-farm poultry processing exemptions, Dubrick said.
'In many states — about 40 — you're allowed to process up to 20,000 birds under similar rules. We're only asking for 7,500,' he said.
Farmers will benefit, according to Dubrick.
'It gives them the opportunity to drive both their production and their profits on their farms,' he said
For consumers, he said, 'I think you'll see an increase in the availability of local poultry, and I don't think you'll see any difference in food quality or safety. Farmers are proud of their product. They're not going to put their name, their reputation, their business on the line.'
Anna Morrell, co-owner of The Little Farm at Weldon Springs in Clinton, said the bill could make it more viable for her and her husband to scale up their small operation, which began in 2020.
'This basically just opens up another avenue for getting poultry processed with lower overhead and gives us an avenue of sales into farmers markets,' Morrell said. 'We're currently not operating under the poultry exemption. We take our meat to USDA-inspected facilities, but there are very few processors in Illinois that process poultry.'
Morrell said the current law had made it more challenging for poultry farmers in Illinois to sell their products; this bill would decrease the number of miles farmers have to travel to get their poultry processed.
If signed, Legislators and advocates say the bill represents a rare collaboration between producers, public health departments and state lawmakers.
'And let's see if we can't keep a few more farm families on the farm and give kids another chance at a future on the farm,' Meier said.
Grace Friedman is a journalism student at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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