“I’m Bill from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Meat and Poultry Inspection. We’ve impounded your beef hanging at the slaughter house because an informant told us you’re selling uninspected meat. We’ll have to conduct an investigation.”
The tall man standing in the front door of our farmhouse held a large metallic badge up by his face during this introductory monologue. I had come in for lunch, and Teresa joined me at the front door.
The week before, we had taken our entire year’s beeves over to the slaughter house and the carcasses were now hanging in the chill room waiting to be diced and sliced into T-bones, ribeyes, ground, and the regular assortment of roasts. I knew we had done everything legally, so I figured it must be a mistake. Understand, that in those days, those twelve carcasses were a third of our annual farm income.
“What’s the problem?” I stammered.
“It has come to our attention that you are selling uninspected meat. We will have to conduct an investigation to determine if that is true.”
To understand the gravity of the situation, let me put things in context. The animals are slaughtered and then hung in a chill room for a week or ten days. Then the butcher begins cutting them into steaks and roasts. Those packages go into a walk-in freezer on wire racks to speed up the freezing process. Meat cannot be hung indefinitely without going bad. This is a highly perishable product. It had already been hanging for nearly a week when this public servant showed up at our door.
“How long will this investigation take?” I asked.
“As long as necessary to determine if an infraction has occurred.”
“This isn’t the first time you’ve done this, I’m sure, so could you give me a ballpark time?”
“Maybe six months. Whatever it takes.”
I gulped. “In six months, this meat will be rotten.”
