Meat + Poultry - July 2010 - 55

MOBILE SLAUGHTERING

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Interior of a mobile slaughtering unit. (Photo courtesy of Penn State Univ.)

as long as they meet all the regulatory requirements," Healy says. "The
MPPU comes with poultry cones,
a rotary scalder and plucker, chill
tubs, hot water hand-wash sinks and
eviscerating stations," he says. "The
producer is responsible for labor, electricity, water and propane hookups.
And money is currently being raised
to pay for a second slaughter unit."
Dr. Christopher Raines, assistant professor of meat science and
technology at Penn State University,
thinks the mobile slaughter units are
a boon for states with very few small
slaughtering and processing plants.
Raines pointed out red meat mobile
slaughter units
exist in Washington, run by
groups including the Puget
Sound Meat
Producers Cooperative, Island Grown
Raines
Farmers Cooperative, Thundering Hooves
Group in Walla Walla, Texas and
Alaska. Poultry slaughter units are
being used in California, in the Sierra
Foothills, in Kentucky, North Carolina, at the Community Agricultural Development Center in Colville,
Wash., in Vermont, Montana and
Massachusetts.
Raines says "local food from local
farmers" has a high resonance with
more consumers today. "They like

the idea of eating food coming from
their area. They also like the idea of
helping their local economy. Then
there are elements of eliminating the
'middle man', moving away from the
extremely processed food that forms
a big part of our supermarkets and
groceries, and the idea of our food
animals going through less stress.
And the other growing factor is many
of these foods going to farmers markets, where people like to buy them."
USDA's Healy doesn't expect large
numbers of mobile slaughter units to
appear or for them to take over the
slaughter and processing industry,
including the small industry. Instead
he views the appearance of mobile
slaughter as a technology with slow,
steady growth.
"It's another option for the meat
and poultry industry, and for agriculture. I certainly don't view it as competition with the large packinghouses,
or even the remaining small slaughter
industry. But maybe it's a development
that will allow farm kids to come back
after they've graduated from college
and get involved in their family's farm
business, instead of going away and
doing something else having nothing
to do with agriculture." ■
Bernard Shire is M&P's Washington correspondent
and a feature writer based in Lancaster, Pa. With a
background in editing and writing for daily news
publications, he also works as a food safety consultant and writer for Shire & Associates.

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Meat + Poultry - July 2010

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