The Foothills Pilot Plant in western North Carolina (Photo: Jeff Tiberii)
Jeff Tiberii: Foothills Pilot Plant sits behind a prison off of a gravel road, about 40 miles east of Asheville. It’s a non-descript building that could pass for a small warehouse. Inside workers process game – chickens, turkeys, rabbits and ducks. The site can handle 1-thousand birds per day. A little more than an hour away in North Wilkesboro Tyson Foods can process 160-thousand chickens per day. Needless to say this is a relatively small operation.
Smithson Mills: The purpose of this project is not for the project itself to generate vast sums of money; it’s to put more money in the pockets of the farmers.
Smithson Mills is a consultant in agricultural economic development. He helped create the Foothills Pilot Plant and now serves on its advisory board. McDowell County donated the land. The money to build the facility came from the Golden Leaf Foundation, the state’s Rural Economic Development Center and the Appalachian regional commission. For the roughly 35 game farmers in this region, the site offers a nearby processing plant and that means savings on gas and time. The plant can also provide the coveted USDA stamp of inspection – allowing meat to be sold to supermarkets and across state lines. Mills says having access to USDA approval also allows farmers to produce more than 1-thousand birds each year.
Mills: These small growers can grow as many as their market will demand. So we anticipate that some growers who may have grown a thousand birds per year in the last several years may be able to go to 5,000 birds this year, and then 10,000.
Almost all of the farmers in the region have free-range chickens. Processing these birds takes about one day. After they’re killed they go through a scalder, clucker, and the evisceration room. The meat is then cut and vacuum sealed before heading to a freezer room until pick-up. Handling this work are the employees from right next door.
Prisoner: I’m at Marion Minimum Security Unit, and I’ve got 21 months left, then it will be over.
Foothills Pilot Plant and the prisoner have asked that we do not use his name, per North Carolina Department of Corrections policy. He’s a father of one, serving time at the minimum security prison for drug trafficking. He works 30 to 40 hours a week, receiving minimum wage. Other inmates have jobs that pay less than a dollar a day.
Prisoner: It’s a win-win situation both ways, cause not only is it giving local farmers a chance to make revenue for their farms, but it’s a great chance for us inmates who are getting ready to go home and need some extra money to stand on, when we get out.
Currently, eight prisoners, an intern and a building manager work at the facility. An advisory board sets the prices charged to farmers. The competitive cost caught the attention of Amy Foster who co-owns a farm with her husband in Iron Station, northwest of Charlotte.
Amy Foster: We’re here for a tour today and I’m interested in seeing how their packaging is, because our customers are used to a certain standards and I’m anxious to see what they’re offering here.
Foster’s farm grew 25-hundred chickens last year. She sells many of the birds to a couple of restaurants in uptown Charlotte and several buying clubs. Driving to this plant instead of Siler City would save her thousands of dollars each year. Advisory Board member Smithson Mills says the site will help farmers grow their businesses and provide consumers with more cage-free local meat. His plan is for the plant to break even in the first three years.
Mills: In 10 or 15 years this facility could be too small to accommodate the demand. At that point there will be enough cash flow and markets developed that farmers if they want to could probably pull their resources and build a plant themselves.
For now, he is regularly meeting with farmers and spreading the word about the first non-profit meat processing plant in the country. Jeff Tiberii, NCPR, WUNCMore information
At least 30 small scale independent poultry and rabbit producers in the western NC region have expressed demand for access to inspected slaughter and processing services. These growers are dispersed among 15 counties, with McDowell County located in the center of the producer range.
The closest inspected plant serving independents is located in Kingstree, South Carolina, over 200 miles to the east. Most growers cannot handle the logistics of live bird transportation that far, and some who have tried have experienced high mortality rates.
This project pursues the following set of outcomes:
•A facility is established that allows producers to have small volumes of a variety of poultry and rabbit products of their own raising processed and inspected.
•Producers receive formal training for safe and wholesome commercial growing, processing and marketing of meat products that are state or federally inspected.
•Producers are able to understand and meet all regulatory issues affecting their businesses.
•Producers have a variety of options for marketing inspected meat, including direct marketing, wholesale distribution and participation in associations or other business entities for marketing and sales.
•Small-volume producers are able to expand production and professionalize their businesses.
The establishment of slaughter and processing services for small meat animals in the region would likely substantially increase production among growers. Using data supplied only by existing small animal producers, research indicates an annual potential of 33,205 head of small animals processed at an inspected facility in its earliest stages of operation, with a retail value estimated at $377,000 per year. This represents a five-fold increase from current recorded production volumes.
Based on measured levels of producer demand and potential availability of funding, participants are developing a pilot plant for slaughter and processing of multiple species of poultry and rabbits with a maximum daily throughput of not more than 1,000 chickens per day. The project expects to build a ca. 3,000 square foot prefabricated building and thereafter complete interior build-out using local skilled labor. The design will meet regulatory requirements for every level of inspection, including USDA and state inspection.
The pilot plant is expected to provide slaughtering services approximately twice weekly during its initial year of operation, with facility operations led by a paid general manager. Labor for processing can be sourced from the minimum security prison on a work-release program, until sufficient production volume is achieved to justify hiring full-time processing staff.
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