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A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO HELP

RETAIN SMALL BUSINESSES IN COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT THE STATE

AND PRESERVE TRADITIONAL PRACTICES OF NATIVE AMERICAN AND

HISPANIC COMMUNITIES BY URGING THAT CULTURAL AND TRADITIONAL

PRACTICES BE CONSIDERED BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF

AGRICULTURE IN ADOPTING REGULATIONS FOR MEAT INSPECTION AND

SLAUGHTERHOUSES.

WHEREAS, New Mexico is predominantly a rural state, with

many very small communities surrounded by great areas of open

vistas and great distances between communities; and

WHEREAS, due to the rural nature of the state, many

people still raise livestock for personal consumption, but due

to the changes faced by traditional communities, more and more

Native American and Hispanic people rely on commercial

ventures to provide them with traditional foods; and

WHEREAS, at least ten percent of the population of New

Mexico is Native American, many of whom remain living in

traditional tribal or pueblo communities that were occupied by

their ancestors as long ago as one thousand years; and

WHEREAS, close to fifty percent of the population of New

Mexico is of Spanish ancestry, and many of these people live

in the small traditional communities settled by their

ancestors over the last five hundred years; and

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WHEREAS, this large segment of the population of New

Mexico has traditions that must be preserved if the heritage,

culture and spiritual practices of the long-term residents of

New Mexico are to remain vibrant and meaningful into the

future; and

WHEREAS, food and food preparation are basic to

maintaining many belief systems and the traditional practices

of both the Hispanic population and the Native American

population of New Mexico and include rich and important

practices involving the raising, blessing, harvesting and

consumption of animals; and

WHEREAS, slaughtering of animals has for centuries been

a community activity that in the last hundred years has become

the job of a community member who knows the culturally

appropriate way to raise and prepare animals for ceremonial or

community use; and

WHEREAS, the proprietors of these community businesses

carry much of the traditional knowledge of the appropriate way

and the respectful attitude required to harvest animals for

cultural and traditional activities such as feasts,

ceremonies, matanzas and other community gatherings, and the

practices are viewed many times by regulators as conflicting

with health and safety standards for slaughtering of animals;

and

WHEREAS, the United States department of agriculture has

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specifically authorized spiritual leaders of religious

traditions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam or Judaism in

regard to the preparation of kosher products to be present as

necessary during the butchering of animals, but spiritual

practices of Native Americans and traditional practices of

Hispanic communities are not recognized in these religious

tradition exemptions, in large part because the need for the

services of a slaughterhouse outside of the community or under

state or federal regulation is a recent phenomenon; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, United States department of

agriculture regulations governing the slaughter of animals

have become sophisticated and removed from the traditional

values and practices that support the cultures of New Mexico,

tending to hold those values and practices in disdain as fewer

people creating and enforcing regulations actually have

knowledge or understanding of these cultural values and

practices; and

WHEREAS, small slaughterhouses or community butchers

have found it difficult to remain in business due to the lack

of understanding expressed and exhibited by regulators and

their regulations, and traditional communities are prohibited

from obtaining animals in the way the animals are required to

be prepared by tradition, due to the regulations; and

WHEREAS, even more stringent regulations prohibit

preparation of slaughtered animals in traditional ways for

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resale, as in allowing restaurants to serve some traditional

foods; however, in some cases, parts of animals unavailable,

due to regulation, from local slaughtering businesses are

available as imported delicacies; and

WHEREAS, small butchers and slaughterhouses are

disappearing from traditional communities in many cases due to

the expense of implementing regulations and the regulators'

expectations that to remain in business a butcher will

purchase sophisticated equipment and maintain detailed records

that require sophisticated information technology; and

WHEREAS, some of the requirements that exceed a small

butcher's or slaughterhouse operator's capacity to implement

are targeted at large meatpacking operations that obtain their

animals from feedlots; and

WHEREAS, representatives of traditional communities are

willing to work with the United States department of

agriculture to develop regulations that will allow those

communities to continue their traditions, ceremonies and age-

old community practices while satisfying those necessary

health and safety concerns of the regulators, and allowing

small butchering and slaughterhouse businesses to prosper and

serve a great need in these traditional communities;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE

STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico congressional

delegation be urged to take action to help protect small

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businesses in New Mexico by helping the proprietors of small

slaughterhouses and butchering operations that provide meat

and slaughtered animals for consumption for traditional Native

American feasts and ceremonies, Hispanic community matanzas

and other traditional community gatherings and celebrations to

obtain relief from oppressive regulation through negotiation

with regulators of the United States department of agriculture

and implementation of regulations that take into consideration

the interests and needs of traditional people and communities;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the New Mexico congressional

delegation consider requiring the United States department of

agriculture to adopt provisions in regulations that allow

Native American spiritual leaders the same liberty as other

religious leaders to participate in butchering of animals in

specified slaughterhouse operations to ensure that animals for

feasts, ceremonies or other community gatherings are prepared

as required by tradition; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States department

of agriculture be encouraged to engage in dialogue with the

leaders of traditional communities, both Native American and

Hispanic, in New Mexico to reach accord on regulatory issues

of concern to the traditional and spiritual leaders of those

communities and also to aid small community butchering and

slaughterhouse operations to remain as viable businesses and

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provide the needed services that they offer in small

traditional communities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the New Mexico congressional delegation, the

president of the Navajo Nation, the president of the Jicarilla

Apache Nation, the president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe,

the chair of the all Indian pueblo council, the United States

department of agriculture and the New Mexico livestock board.