Farmers can have just a few animals killed, then sell the meat nearby
Chicago Tribune
By Steve Mills, Tribune reporter
BONFIELD, Ill.– Kim Snyder built her farm in this small community west of Kankakee on the principles of organic farming and local food. But bringing her livestock to slaughter in a way that helps her maintain her passion for those principles has always been difficult.
Now, the former American Express operations manager hopes to develop a mobile slaughterhouse that would travel the state and help farmers get their livestock slaughtered, while also bringing consumers closer to the food they eat.
“I think every farmer like myself will see value in it. It will be so much easier if they can have the butcher come to them,” Snyder said. “It’s good for people too. They’re more connected with their food, more interested in what they’re putting in their mouth. This gets the farm and the processor closer to their customers.”
Most of the country’s meat is processed in massive facilities where cows, pigs and chickens are slaughtered at dizzying speeds before being shipped across the country. But the new approach Snyder is trying to bring to Illinois is gaining a foothold.
With a mobile slaughter unit, usually built on a flatbed truck, a local farmer can have small numbers of animals slaughtered on or near the farm, then sell the meat to neighbors or at farmers markets. Many supporters argue that mobile slaughter units, which might handle only five cows a day, better promote food safety than slaughterhouses that process thousands of animals.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm for this,” said Arion Thiboumery of Iowa State University, who has studied mobile slaughter units. “In large plants, the animals go by real fast. This is much smaller, so it’s slower. Many people say it’s safer.”
The nation’s first federally inspected mobile slaughter unit — the units travel with an inspector — started in Washington state. Today, Thiboumery said, there are about 20 mobile slaughter units for poultry and a half-dozen for cattle around the country.
In Kentucky, a unit that moves between three locations has been serving poultry farmers as well as fishermen who raise and catch shrimp, bass, catfish and other fish.
“It’s made a big difference for farmers,” said Steve Skelton of Kentucky State University, who is in charge of the unit. “They’re making money again.”
Snyder sells meat to Chicagoans from her Web site, http://www.faithsfarm.com; runs a booth at the farmers market at 61st Street and Woodlawn Avenue; and supplies the Park Grill at Millennium Park and other restaurants. She said she has gotten interest in the mobile unit from a butcher as well as from financial backers. A start-up mobile slaughter unit can cost $250,000 or more.
“If we can get this going, I see it growing very, very quickly,” Snyder said. “How cool would it be for a chef, or just for anyone, to walk out here and choose an animal, then have it slaughtered and pretty much ready to go?”
