Engaging diverse small and medium-sized livestock stakeholders in design processes to increase access to meat slaughter and processing facilities

View the project final report

Commodities

• Animal Products: meat, halal meat

Practices

• Animal Production: meat processing, meat processing facilities
• Education and Training: decision support system

Federal and state efforts to support livestock processing have increased in recent months. COVID-19 outbreaks caused major meat processing facilities to temporarily close in the Upper Midwest, further contributing to a bottleneck in processing that has yet to recede. As new local processing facilities serving small and medium sized livestock operators come online, farmers will have the opportunity to expand or start new flocks. This project will engage such farmers that want to reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers and herbicides and adopt regenerative grazing practices that build soil and increase soil quality such as grazing on perennial pastures, integrating livestock within cropping systems, and utilizing and grazing cover crops.

Furthermore, the project seeks to tie halal meat production and processing to environmental and economic goals. By using a community design framework, this project gathers farmer input and provides community mapping to assist in identifying optimal parameters for a halal processing facility in Central Minnesota. An unmet market demand for fresh halal lamb and goat meat opens business opportunities for tribal and grass-based livestock producers. Supplying the growing population of Muslim Americans and immigrants that seek fresh halal meats is an economic opportunity that supports the culturally relevant nutritional needs and provides short-and long-term opportunities for community economic development.

Objectives

• Convene stakeholders from small-scale pasture based and organic grazing operations; halal livestock producers and processors; and tribal livestock producers
  • Build cross-cultural relationships in Greater MN through problem solving
  • Conduct design process where stakeholders collaborate to define problems facing livestock production and processing and identify creative solutions
  • Utilize a design specialist to document meeting proceedings innovatively, and informatively, and in a format that is accessible to a multicultural audience
• Increased understanding of and strategies for access to meat slaughter and processing
• Generate a community map that identifies optimal locations for a halal processing facility that considers stories told by halal, grass-based, and tribal farming stakeholders; population growth and projections of Muslim Americans and immigrants in Minnesota; and access to potential existing labor pools and meat processing training programs