Marion meat plant closes near Thanksgiving, threatening poultry business

FAIRVIEW - The turkeys on the hill at Hickory Nut Gap Farm have long surpassed the girth of the nearby pumpkins.

But to get them ready for the Thanksgiving table, farmer Jamie Ager will have to go "old school" this year, pulling his sons out of class for a day to help with the harvest.

That's because Asheville's closest small poultry-processing facility has closed, leaving farmers in six states scrambling to fill holiday orders, with the nearest U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved slaughterhouses in Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas and Alabama.

Some farmers say that, as a result, the future of local poultry may be in jeopardy.

Cool Hand Meats, which provided Animal Welfare Act-approved and USDA-inspected slaughter and processing services from the Foothills Pilot Plant facility in Marion, shut its doors last month for lack of capital, according to owner Amanda Carter.

"Farmers need to demand more money out of the customers if they're going to make this extremely unique, high-welfare product work," she said. "But it doesn't matter if we hug the chicken if we can't reduce the brutality throughout the supply chain."

That means paying both farmers and slaughterhouse workers a fair wage, she said.

"Paying them enough money so that they can provide for their families, much less enjoy the very luxury food items that we're in the business of producing."

Unskilled workers started at $9 an hour, still more than the minimum wage many larger plants pay.

With no consistent community funding combined with huge turnover, high expenses and a short profit-making season, keeping the plant open was impossible, Carter said.

"Agriculture is seasonal, but we need to pay the bills 12 months out of the year."

The timing of the closure adds to the difficulty for area farms.

"Right before Thanksgiving, this has left farmers trying to figure out what to do next," said Scott Bunn of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. 

"We don't want to panic anyone, either consumers or farmers. But usually around this time we put together who’s selling local turkeys and we’ve been holding off because this has been such a wild ride these few weeks." 

Many customers prepay for holiday birds, leaving farmers on the hook to fill orders. Some farmers may make a slimmer profit this year, or even lose money if they have to ship their birds far for slaughter. 

"It's a blow to the industry as a whole," Ager said. "And that's too bad for a lot of independent folks who have invested time and energy into growing these animals with the expectation they could bring them to (the Foothills Pilot Plant) to get processed,"

Ager saw the writing on the wall early enough to put a processing facility in the back of his barn. An on-site kitchen will help with butchery and vacuum sealing. All of the birds will be slaughtered, processed and delivered in time for Thanksgiving.

"Unfortunately we don't have that option," said Wendy Brugh of Dry Ridge Farm. On Tuesday, she said the farm had 350 meat chickens on the ground, scheduled for processing at the Foothills plant that day.

"For us, it's not a huge crisis, because we know someone who's got the equipment we need," she said. Warren Wilson College students and a handful of other farmers would help process the birds, she said. "The farming community is coming together and helping us out."

That's possible only through the good graces of N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Meat and Poultry Inspection Division.

To help mitigate the crisis, North Carolina farmers with properly inspected equipment are now permitted to process other farmers’ poultry, but only through the end of the year.

That gives farmers like Brugh some leeway, but only so much. 

This year, she expected her team of mostly volunteers will need to begin work at 4 a.m. and work until dark to get the job done. 

"I'm happy I don't have ducks and turkeys on the ground because the thought of processing so many birds is terrifying," she said. 

It's still better than having to drive seven hours each way with livestock to the nearest facility, with a who-knows-how-long wait to collect cleaned birds, she said. That's not to mention the cost of the trip and extra fees facilities might charge for last-minute work. 

Cost is one of the biggest concerns poultry farmers have during even the best of times.

Some small farmers say that's thanks to big chicken companies like Tyson Foods, which has two plants in North Carolina.

Tyson has the money to process big numbers of birds quickly, said Brugh, while small farmers often make little profit and struggle with the expense of getting birds to market. 

"Then people are surprised that we charge $5 a pound for whole birds and $12 a pound for breast meat, and we're definitely not making money hand over fist," she continued.

Large chicken producers like Tyson sell protein so cheaply, it lowers consumers' price tolerance, she added.

"Meanwhile, farmers are living below poverty line. It really comes down to what people are willing to pay for food, and I'd say that's exactly what's broken with the food system."

Ager agreed the plant's closure illustrates the fragility of the local food movement. 

"(Small-scale farming) makes a lot of sense in sort of a philosophical, academic kind of way, but when we're in application mode, meeting payroll and figuring out how to run the business, it becomes a challenge to do it efficiently," he said.

Tyson's model of killing and processing hundreds of thousands of birds in a day is the antithesis of the local food movement. But it's profitable. 

"And here we are trying to redo how we grow animals, and that includes processing as well," Ager said. "When you don't have it scaled to that level, it has an impact on profitability." 

Sarah Blacklin, program director for NC Choices, echoed the sentiment that consumer price expectations make providing local poultry difficult. 

NC Choices is an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, which works to support the growth of pasture-based meat businesses. 

Businesses across the supply chain want to make local poultry work, but they need customers to not only demand local poultry but also be willing to pay for it, she said.

"Locally grown poultry usually should be one of the most expensive proteins on your plate," she said. "It takes a lot of labor to raise and process birds, and you don't get a lot of meat back."

Farmers are resourceful, creative people, and she said she expected all holiday orders would be filled. "The larger angst is the future of the pastured-poultry business, and what that might look like until more solutions are brought to the table."

Meanwhile, Carter of Cool Hand Meats hopes a stakeholder steps in with enough capital investment to not only get the plant running again, to keep it running well into the future.

But she said the business of getting local food to the table needs a paradigm shift. 

"The foodies who have seen too many 'Portlandia' episodes want to believe the people working in the supply chain (are there because) they have the same passions and value healthy eating," she said. 

But the reality is that slaughterhouse work is a labor intensive, hot, nasty smelly job. 

"In this business, we'll never be able to get wages high enough, in this budgetary and economic environment, so workers doing all the dirty work of killing the chicken could eat the chicken," she said. Until then, turnover will remain high.

That's unless people are willing to pay what meat is worth, she said.

"Because it's not just the processing plant. The whole supply chain needs work. The entire supply chain is fragile."