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In Kentucky, a group of farmers, consumers, nonprofit organizations,
university scientists, and health and agriculture department officials
have jointly constructed a mobile processing unit – about
the size of a large horse trailer – that can be hauled by
truck to different locations. It contains the scalding, plucking,
washing and packaging equipment each farm family needs to process
broilers and turkeys.
One of the key players in the coalition is Heifer International
(Heifer), a nonprofit organization that helps farmers with limited
resources launch pastured poultry and other enterprises. Heifer
applied for SARE funds, which, combined with major support from
the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, financed the $75,000 mobile
unit. Participating farmers helped design the unit, and Steve Muntz,
Heifer’s Appalachia program manager and coordinator of the
poultry project, said they are satisfied with their initial experiences.
“There was no alternative for the farmers,” Muntz
said. “There is not a single federally inspected poultry processing
plant in the state that will take birds from an independent producer,
and selling live birds to individuals is the only other way, given
the state restrictions.”
The USDA has exempted the unit from federal inspection, and the
state has licensed it for both poultry and shrimp processing. Birds
processed in the unit, the only legal method for independent Kentucky
farmers to sell processed poultry, can be sold anywhere in the state.
The unit, which must be paired with a docking station equipped
with potable water, electric and sewer connections, is located in
Frankfort. To reach greater numbers of farmers and to minimize the
per-station expense (estimated at $4,000 to $5,000), organizers
expect to see another station constructed in eastern Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Heifer and its partners continue to seek a broader
customer base for pastured poultry in the state. They also hope
to establish a range poultry ooperative to meet the demand for the
product and locate docking stations close to co-op members.
“We hope the mobile processing unit will provide a path to
a new small-scale poultry industry in Kentucky,” Muntz said.
“As agriculture has gotten bigger and bigger in this country,
the doors to the marketplace have been closed to small farmers.
The unit is one key available to Kentucky farmers to unlock those
doors.”
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