I. Conventional Meat Processing

Ask most people about a meat processing facility, and they think of large factory-style operations. Surrounded by feedlots for fattening livestock quickly, such facilities slaughter hundreds of animals per day. They consume large amounts of energy and water, generate substantial organic pollution and greenhouse gasses, and are staffed largely by minimum wage workers working at high speed to maximize productivity. Hence there are high injury rates, and high turnover. As a result of the massive consolidation in the meat industry since World War II, almost 98% of meat consumed in the US is processed through such facilities.

In their favor, such facilities are efficient, so the processing cost per animal is low, reducing the price of meat for consumers. Moreover, both the animals and the meat are carefully regulated and inspected by the USDA at every stage. This helps control health risks for the consumer. Moreover, in recent years, the majority of facilities have adopted more humane methods of slaughter, under pressure from consumers and from large buyers like McDonalds. Thus the animals suffer less than they once did.

But wages and working conditions have improved little over the years. Both animals and meat must be shipped long distances, consuming more energy and generating more greenhouse gases. And because of centralization, the entire system is vulnerable to disruption, either by a disease outbreak, rapidly rising energy and grain prices, or even a terrorist attack. Meanwhile, both nutritionists and consumers are questioning the long-term health effects of feedlot beef.

The irony of all this is that it need not be so. Indeed, prior to World War II, the vast majority of animals were grass fed and organic, and many were slaughtered at small scale, local facilities for local distribution and consumption. But all that changed with cheap energy and subsidized grain. The smaller, inefficient facilities could not compete, and the public came to expect heavily marbled meat all year around that tasted the same every time. So the "modern" meat packing industry was born.

New Generation Beef Facility, New Zealand

II. "New Generation" Meat Facilities

However, the situation is changing rapidly. Consumers are demanding healthy, local meat, humanely raised and processed. Ranchers, responding to this demand, are beginning to shift from production for feedlots and factory packing plants to grass fed and organic methods.

Meanwhile, in Europe and New Zealand, a new generation of meat processing plant has been developed. Such plants are a fraction of the size of factory facilities. The pace is slower, and the emphasis is on quality rather than quantity. There are no feedlots, so far less pollution, and little if any smell. Wastes are tightly controlled, and water conserved and extensively recycled. Workers are well paid, given full benefits, and taught a variety of skills, so they can rotate through different stations in teams. Equipment is ergonomically designed. Thus injuries are reduced by a factor of four, and job-turnover is virtually non-existent. A premium is placed on humane treatment of the animals at every phase.

It turns out that such facilities not only produce higher quality products, but are more efficient and profitable to operate. The effects upon the industry have been quite dramatic. On New Zealand's North Island, where once all meat was processed through four huge factory facilities, today only one remains. In their place is a distributed network of "new generation" facilities. These meet an array of health and safety standards far beyond those imposed by our USDA.

So visually attractive and economically beneficial are these to local communities and farmers that they are frequently built and operated by municipalities as a kind of public utility. And the meat they produce is demonstrably healthier and of higher quality than large facility products, and has almost double the shelf life. In consequence, New Zealand meat exports have soared. The picture in Europe is the same, with some of the most efficient, humane, healthy and environmentally sustainable facilities in the world having been built in Scandinavia.

Given the evident superiority of such plants, one might well ask how many of them have been built in the United States. The answer is quite surprising--none whatsoever. Local producers must rely upon small, old fashioned and inefficient plants, many of which are teetering on the edge of economic collapse.

III. North Coast Meats Program Objectives

We regard this situation as a tragedy that holds a challenge and a promise. There is a growing consensus among progressive agricultural professionals that with rising fuel prices, competition for grains from the ethanol industry, the pressures of global warming and environmental regulations, and changing consumer demand, the meat facility of the future will be small, local, sustainable, humane to both animals and workers, and will increasingly emphasize grass fed and organic meat. Moreover, rather than specializing in one type of animal, the facility of the future will be multi-species, the better to serve the needs of local farmers and ranchers who diversify to meet the requirements of an ever more diverse and demanding marketplace.

We have resolved to develop the first such "new generation" facility in the United States, using the plants of New Zealand and Europe as our point of departure and improving upon them in a variety of ways. We believe that the ranchers of the North Coast Region, including Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake Counties, raise some of the best meat in the world on some of the finest grasslands. Moreover, there is no more rapidly growing market for healthy food, and healthy meat in particular, than the San Francisco Bay area, nor more educated consumers and environmentally concerned individuals and communities. We believe that such a facility could serve as a model for meat production regions across the state and across the country, and play a part in the transformation of the meat industry and the revitalization of animal agriculture.