I’m working for a food incubator (focused on restaurants) in DC, and considering the fact that there are a few other food incubators in the area, the article about the Taos County Economic Development Corporation caught my eye. Food incubators create a low-risk space for people to produce food, and this organization did just that.
The two women who started this organization, Terrie and Patti, are standouts. The community of Taos is known for having a deep knowledge in farming and ranching, and these women really tapped into these invaluable resources. The community is relatively rural and they wanted to help create more economic opportunities that created a good local food economy. Their development: create a space where different individuals can make homemade food products. Because the permit process and education about food production can be complicated, they streamlined the process making it easier for individuals who want to be food producers.
To me, the most striking food producer that came out of their corporation was a mobile meat processing truck. This is great for small scale farmers who raise their cattle in a humane way but cannot afford to process their meat humanely because of outrageously expensive equipment or certification costs. I’ve read plenty of stories of ranchers or meat processors struggling to get by because they attempt to humanely raise and slaughter meat. This creates a way for them to do both, but is low risk because they don’t have to pay for the expensive equipment. The meat currently does not go out into the rural community, but Terrie and Pattie are working to make the locally raised meat is available to local individuals.
From what I’ve seen in DC and this article, I feel like more people should look into this business model. It could probably help many small business owners survive; it would probably also be a great way to have more sustainable local foods and support a local economy.
Hi, Lindsey. You put your finger on a crucial issue for small-scale farmers raising animals for meat. An interesting variant on mobile slaughtering operations (which have great potential) is having the customers themselves carry out the slaughtering and other processing. I’ve seen this in action in the Delta, where new African farmers raising goats on their smallish properties have formed a connection with the Muslim community in Birmingham. These consumers want Halal meat, and doing the final processing themselves both reassures them on this front and gives the farmers a huge economic boost. Best wishes, John
Lindsey!
I think this is so cool. From so much that I have read and learned about food I have realized how hard it is for farmers to both produce and process their foods.
Something I think you might find interesting… On Martha’s Vineyard where I go every summer there are many farms and some farmers who raise pigs/cows/chickens for meat. There is not, however, a slaughter house or processing facility on the island. If farmers want to sell their meat at farmer’s markets or in any stores, they must have their meat slaughtered at a registered slaughter house. They have to send their animals off the island and then get the meat back in order to sell it to local customers. This is such an inefficient process both economically and environmentally. There have been many petitions from farmers to open a slaughterhouse on the island but the idea isn’t popular with residents. One way to get around this rule is to slaughter, process, and sell meat all on your own own property. This requires local customers to intentionally seek out the farmers. I wonder if it would be legal to develop a delivery system where a mobile meat truck could pick up the meat from farmers who slaughter their own animals on their farms and deliver it to customers… Who knows!
I hope you’ve been able to find some good sustainable meat to eat here in DC 🙂
Lindsey,
The story about the Taos County Economic Development Corporation also caught my eye, and I had some similar thoughts to you about how this type of system could seriously benefit farming communities all over the country. Just as you described, there are often cases in which animals that are humanely raised, and are of a higher quality meat, are still sent to industrial processing facilities.
We heard from a handful of Vermont farmers who described this to be the case for the processing of both chickens and cows. It seems so counterintuitive and wasteful to raise animals in a mindful way, only to have them slaughtered carelessly and on a mass, industrial scale. I think that a system similar to the one described in the Taos story could greatly benefit the farmers of Vermont and the consumers in the area.