More than 300 eager delegates arrived in Asheville, N.C., for an Appalachian Regional Commission-sponsored forum on “Growing the Appalachian Food Economy.” Why the interest? Ask Mayor Pete Hobbs of Anstead, W.V., a retired executive of AT&T. He is a dedicated public servant seeking to revive the economy of his small rural town 60 miles outside Charleston and sees the local food movement as a key avenue to success. We would be hard pressed in Lexington and its surrounding communities to quibble with this assessment.
Conference delegates were in full agreement that the opportunity has arrived for seizing upon the local food movement. Some were with nonprofits springing up to provide the seed capital and education that will be necessary to tie the threads of a loosely knit movement together with goals of: better health, safer food, environmental stewardship, access to good food, and perhaps most importantly, economic opportunity.
Presenters were eager to tell their stories. They told of spotty successes with the most often cited challenge: how to tie the threads of this movement together to achieve some or all the goals cited above. A how-to workshop that stood out? Locally based, small meat-processing facilities to meet the growing consumer demand for locally grown meat.
Why so interesting and important? Because we consume meat; our consciousness about its evolution from farm to table is at center stage. Sensitized by media and our own interest in safe and nutritious food, we like the notion of knowing the farm from which it comes. In their zeal to understand the importance of food, consumers increasingly demand to know how animals are grown, slaughtered and processed for our enjoyment and nourishment as food.
Meat processing has been around since the first arrow felled a deer, with mom-and-pop operations springing up to “dress” hunted game so long as it is restricted to family consumption. Addressing efficiency, meat processing grew into industrial-sized facilities with increased regulatory oversight, mostly in the name of food safety. Today, these facilities are located in the crossroads of the country and are major business operations.
It is at the crest of this local-food movement that the evolution of “local” small meat-processing facilities becomes relevant. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture lists 24 USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) meat-processing facilities throughout the commonwealth. Unlike the mom-and-pops serving the hunter’s family, they are subject to USDA oversight because they sell to the public, either directly or through restaurants and grocery stores.
Marksbury Farm Market, established in 2010 near Danville, Ky., is building a brisk business selling its processed beef, chicken, lamb and pork to restaurants and grocers eager for local food and ingredients throughout the central Kentucky area. It is a full-cycle facility, beginning with animals arriving from local farms and delivered to specially built “humane” pens. From there, the animals are humanely slaughtered and then processed into packaged meat by 22 employees and distributed.
John-Mark Hack, who oversaw the transition from tobacco to diversified crops under the Patton Administration and a Marksbury partner, believes in the concept of local meat processing facilities: “In central Kentucky, we are blessed with a tremendous natural resource base in our grasslands and pastures, second to none in the world. We are in the grass business, and we use animals to convert grass to protein, and delicious protein at that. Our business is a sustainable product of our natural resources.”
Hack notes the opportunities for local meat processing facilities: tapping into the growing consumer demand for locally produced meat; creating local jobs and putting more dollars into the pockets of local farmers who save energy and time in transporting animals shorter distances.
But the challenges are many as noted by Hack and others. They cite regulations such as extensive record keeping better suited to large industrial operations and not essential to safety. In addition, the cost of buildings, equipment, and accommodations for inspectors are just a few that belong to a capital intensive start up. Other concerns are size and scale in targeting a sufficient volume of animals to meet sensitive price points of a dollar conscious public, farmers who can get higher prices at the traditional stockyards, and finding employees either with the skills or desire to develop them in an industry often viewed as unglamorous and dangerous.
So, what can be done to support these facilities and meet demand for more locally produced meat? Hack advises us that our efforts should fall into two areas. The first priority should be developing a plan for infusing capital into such facilities. Currently most facilities are family owned and were built with a combination of owner/investor dollars and government programs. Traditional bank financing is unavailable because of lack of knowledge or willingness to finance agriculture projects, resulting in many seeking nonprofit status. The second focus area, according to Hack, should be addressing policy beginning at the federal level, which has typically been governed top down and unfortunately favors large industrialized farming over small.
Visit the Kentucky Department of Agriculture at www.kyagr.com for ample resources available to assist would-be processors. The challenge is how to get the word out about available resources and connect the dots along the chain from farm to table. Meat processing is but one of a number of threads to the local food movement and its possible conversion into an economic boon, but an important one.
Sylvia Lovely (sylvia@sylvialovely.com) and chef Jeremy Ashby (chefashby@gmail.com) are co-hosts of Sunny Side Up Radio (www.sunnysideupradio.com) on News Radio 630 WLAP at 11 a.m. every Saturday.