SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010
POLITICS THE NATION Speeding up the route from farm to table
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‘Slaughtermobiles’ are solution for small meat producers
A mobile by Lyndsey Layton
When Kathryn Thomas wanted to turn her sheep into lamb chops, the federal government re- quired her to haul them across Puget Sound on a ferry and then drive three hours to reach a suit- able slaughterhouse. Not anymore. These days, the slaughterhouse — and the feds — come to her. A 53-foot tractor-trailer rat- tles up to her farm on Lopez Is- land, the rear doors open and the sheep are led inside, where the butcher and federal meat in- spector are waiting. When the job is done, the team heads out to the next farm. The slaughtermobile — a stain- less steel industrial facility on wheels — is catching on across the country, filling a desperate need in a burgeoning movement to bring people closer to their food. It is also perhaps one of the most visible symbols of a subtle transformation at the U.S. De- partment of Agriculture, long criticized for promoting big agri- business. Under the Obama administra- tion and the 2008 farm bill passed by Congress, the USDA is shifting attention to small and mid-size farms, encouraging or- ganic and sustainable agricul- ture, and investing in projects to bring locally grown meat and pro- duce to consumers. “There is unbelievable con- sumer interest in local agricul- ture that we haven’t seen in dec- ades,” said Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. She is overseeing the agency’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” program, designed to revive the processing, marketing and dis- tribution networks that once made small farming viable but disintegrated in the last 30 years as U.S. agriculture went through a dramatic consolidation.
Along with mid-size and small farms, the number of federally in- spected slaughterhouses has been dropping, from 1,627 in 1980 to 1,051 in 2010, according to the USDA. Today, four corporations slaughter 80 percent of the cattle in the United States. In Wyoming, for example, where cattle ranch- ing is so iconic that license plates carry an image of a cowboy, there is no longer a single slaughter- house inspected by either the fed- eral or state government. Instead, ranchers ship cattle across state
DEAN J. KOEPFLER/NEWS TRIBUNE
lines to megaprocessors, where cows are usually fattened on grain and fed antibiotics before they are slaughtered in facilities that process up to 3,000 animals a day. “There are farming operations
that are really big and do huge volumes of food and that’s part of American agriculture and that’s good,” Merrigan said. “But there are a lot of people who want to do alternative markets, and we want to find a way to help them find a living and stay in rural America and help those towns and villages thrive. This really is a rural devel- opment strategy.” The agency is promoting small
meat producers in part by fund- ing and approving more mobile slaughter units, staffing each one with a federal inspector, educat- ing farmers and USDA employees about the units, and setting clear guidelines for farmers who want to build one. In December, the de- partment set up a toll-free help line dedicated to small producers.
A cultural shift Most people in this country are
not likely to eat meat processed in a mobile slaughterhouse, but the USDA’s promotion of the units marks a significant cultural shift at the agency, especially since Earl Butz, the agriculture secre- tary from 1971 to 1976, famously admonished farmers to “get big or get out.” The change coincides with a backlash against factory farms, fueled by concerns about animal welfare, impact on the environ- ment and quality and safety of meat. Consumers are increasingly demanding grass-fed beef, pork and lamb raised on local pastures by farmers who can vouch for the animals’ diet and treatment. The USDA estimates that the market for locally grown food will be about $7 billion by 2012, up steep- ly from $4 billion in 2002.
DIGEST IMMIGRATION
Harvard student spared deportation An undocumented Harvard
University student whose deten- tion by immigration authorities has drawn wide attention is no longer facing deportation to Mexico, officials said. Eric Balderas, 19, was detained nearly two weeks ago after he tried to use a university ID card to board a plane from San Antonio to Boston. The detention sparked a buzz among student immigrant activists, many of whom thought Balderas’s case might help ad- vance the proposed DREAM act — a federal bill that would allow ille- gal immigrants a pathway to citi- zenship through college enroll- ment or military service. Mario Rodas, a friend of Balde-
ras’s, said Balderas was granted deferred action, which can be used to halt deportation based on a case’s merits. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement con- firmed that the agency had decid- ed not to pursue the deportation. —Associated Press
MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES PENNSYLVANIA
White supremacists picket at Gettysburg
A demonstration by a dozen white supremacists at one of the nation’s most famous Civil War battlefields ended without inci- dent Saturday, as police kept them isolated from the slightly larger group of counterprotesters. The Aryan Nations’ northeast- ern division held its demonstra- tion at Gettysburg National Mili- tary Park, just a few hundred yards from the site where the Union Army repulsed Pickett’s Charge during the storied 1863 battle. The two sides taunted each other but never got close. There were no arrests.
—Associated Press
Performers prepare Saturday for the Coney Island, N.Y., Mermaid Parade, which has been heralding the start of summer since 1983.
FDA warns against using coffee product as aphrodisiac:The Food and Drug Administration on Sat- urday urged consumers not to use an instant coffee product that is being marketed as a sexual aphro- disiac, saying it could danger- ously lower blood pressure. The FDA said Magic Power Coffee con- tains a chemical that could inter- act with some prescription drugs in ways that might lead to dizzi- ness or lightheadedness.
Bear killed after fatal mauling near Yellowstone: Federal wild- life officials on Saturday tracked down and killed a grizzly bear sus- pected of fatally mauling a man outside Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Shot from a hel-
icopter, the bear died about two miles from where Erwin Frank Evert was killed Thursday near his cabin east of Yellowstone.
Schools official in R.I. vows to change controversial policy: The superintendent of a Rhode Island school district that banned a sec- ond-grader’s homemade hat be- cause it displayed toy soldiers with tiny guns said Saturday that he will work to change the policy to allow such apparel. Ken Di Pie- tro said the no-weapons policy shouldn’t limit student expres- sion. The 8-year-old student glued plastic Army figures to a baseball cap after choosing a patriotic theme for a school project. —From news services
Senate may end secret nomination ‘holds’
by Dan Eggen Sen. Claire McCaskill said Sat-
urday that she has enough votes to end the Senate’s long-standing and much-criticized practice of allowing the use of anonymous holds to block nominations. McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Sens.
Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) had agreed to support the effort, giv- ing her the 67 votes necessary to change Senate rules. Supporters include nine Republicans, and only Sen. Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) is opposed on the Democratic side. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) “strongly sup- ports Senator McCaskill’s efforts and will work with her to sched- ule a vote as quickly as possible,” said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. The use of secret holds has en-
raged lawmakers of both parties by allowing the minority party to hold up presidential nominations with no public admission by the intervening senator. Under McCaskill’s proposal, senators could still place holds, but would have to do so publicly. Republicans have been partic- ularly aggressive in their use of holds during the Obama adminis- tration, including a widely crit- icized move by Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) earlier this year that stalled 70 appointments. McCaskill is scheduled to testi- fy this week before the Senate rules committee, which would have to sign off before the effort could proceed.
eggend@washpost.com
But there is a bottleneck in the system: a lack of slaughterhouses that can work with small farmers. Most big slaughterhouses require farmers to book appointments far in advance, sometimes as long as 18 months. That’s difficult for a small farmer raising animals in pastures, where weather and oth- er variables can affect their growth and readiness for slaugh- ter. But without a federal or state inspection seal, or a special ex- emption allowed by some states, meat cannot be sold. The USDA approved the first mobile slaughter unit for Lopez Island in 2002 and has certified eight others across the country for large animals — cattle, sheep and pigs. A group of about 20 farmers in Western Maryland will meet with the USDA later this month to discuss bringing a mo- bile slaughterhouse to Washing- ton, Carroll and Frederick coun- ties. “People want to buy their stuff locally and they want to buy it from you instead of the counter at Safeway or Food Lion or from some anonymous slaughterhouse that stuffed it full of antibiotics so it wouldn’t get sick,” said Dick Stoner, who raises black angus cattle on a farm in Sharpsburg, Md., near the Antietam Civil War battlefield. Like neighboring farmers, Stoner sells some cattle to bulk slaughterhouses in the West. He has been consumed with the idea of a slaughtermobile ever since he heard Merrigan give a talk six months ago. “We’ve got all these farms within an hour and a half. All we have to do is connect the buyers in the city with these farms and figure out a way to get the meat to them.”
At roughly $250,000, a basic slaughtermobile costs about one- fourth of a permanent facility and is likely to face less opposition from the community. “No one
slaughter unit is parked on a farm in Summit, Wash. The USDA’s funding and support of such units is emblematic of a subtle shift at the agency toward more support for small farms.
wants to live next to a slaugh- terhouse,” Stoner said. “So getting a new one built, even on a farm, is almost out of the question.” Bruce Dunlop, an engineer and farmer on Lopez Island who de- signed the mobile slaughter unit there, has gotten so many in- quiries from other farmers that he launched a side business and has built nine others. “I get calls and e-mails every week, from farmers all over the world,” Dun- lop said.
‘Just one strategy’
Farmers point out that there are still significant barriers. Slaughtermobiles have to meet the same federal sanitary stan- dards as permanent slaughter- houses, which is costly, and they come with particular challenges, such as a need for potable water and a way to dispose of animal waste. Farmers must form coop- eratives to purchase and operate the units. And once the animal is slaughtered, the carcass still has to be brought to a packing house for cutting and wrapping before the meat can be sold. “Mobile slaughter units are a bit of a quick fix,” said Joe Cloud, a landscape architect who joined farmer Joel Salatin — celebrated among the “locavore” movement — to buy a small slaughterhouse in the Shenandoah Valley in 2007 that was about to shut down. Their operation, T&E Meats, is so busy they are turning away busi- ness. “You still need to cut up the
meat, you need saws, grinders, stuffers, vacuum packers, smoke- houses, curing areas, drying units and all of these things that take a lot of space,” Cloud said. “I just don’t see how we’re going to re- build the local community-based system using mobile units.” Merrigan agrees. “This is just
one strategy,” she said.
laytonl@washpost.com
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