Food Files: Bruce Dunlop on Mobile Slaughter

A recent article in the New York Times points out the lack of sufficient "slaughterhouses to meet the growing demand for locally raised meat." This dearth of slaughter facilities is a major problem for small-scale meat producers and is one of the biggest bottlenecks in sustainable agriculture. The situation is creating the potential for what the Times describes as "a major setback for America’s local-food movement."

Enter the mobile slaughter unit, a slaughterhouse-in-a-truck that roams from small farm to small farm offering its services for a fee. These new-wave facilities not only provide convenient access to slaughter operations but also allow farmers to avoid transporting their livestock to slaughter, reducing hassle for farmers and suffering for animal.

Who came up with this brilliant idea, you ask? Bruce Dunlop, an engineer-turned-farmer who raises pigs and sheep on Washington's Lopez Island. He was hired by the Lopez Community Land Trust to design and build the nation's first "mobile slaughter unit" for the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative. I recently discussed the ins and outs of this innovation with Dunlop, who now has a sideline business as a "mobile slaughter engineering consultant" — surely one of your more unusual job titles.

Why did your cooperative decide to create a mobile slaughter unit?

There were several reasons we went with mobile versus a fixed slaughter facility, but the reason we built anything at all is that we didn’t have any USDA-inspected facility within any kind of reasonable distance of our location. The mobile facility was significantly less expensive than a fixed slaughter plant. It didn’t raise the ire of potential neighbors like a fixed plant did. And it made it possible for all the farmers not have to haul their animals.

Where did you find the idea to make a mobile slaughter unit?

There’s a long history of farm slaughter done for individuals that’s considered “not for sale.” They’re licensed by the state. We all use them. That was the model we wanted to replicate, but under inspection.

How did you manage to get approval from the USDA?

Well, at that time the HACCP [Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point] program was just coming in, which was a huge change in the way that food safety facilities were designed and built and operated, where instead of the USDA saying "this is how you do it," they said "tell us how you’re going to do it, show us you can do it safely and keep appropriate records." That really opened the door to let us do something different. You no longer had to send plans to the USDA for approval before you built.

We were working with a USDA inspector here all through the process of designing it, and he was open to the concept, and he just wanted to make sure we could indeed do everything in a way that complied with both the intent and the details of safety. That was the big benefit; we did it very openly and together and were able to make that happen.

At this point the USDA is really not an obstacle for people who want to do this. There’s enough of [these mobile units] out there so [the USDA inspectors] know they work. They have a pretty good idea of how they need to be operated to not have safety issues. They’re actually more supportive than anything.

Are there a lot of other projects of this type popping up around the country?

There are a half a dozen or more that are operating.

In your case, does the cooperative own and operate the unit?

At this point we lease it. Our co-op has an option to purchase it at the end of the lease, which I assume they will do.

Who operates it and drives it around and does the slaughter?

The co-op does. The co-op was formed specifically to be the organization that would operate it on behalf of the farming community. It’s made up of farmers and they do all of the day-to-day operations and maintain the unit. They also lease and operate a fixed facility to do all the cutting.

How often does the unit come to each farm?

It typically operates four days a week on average. It may go to any member’s farm once a year or it may go a couple times a month depending on the size of the farmer’s operation.

How many animals can the facility process?

Our facility can process up to ten beef per day. We also do lambs and goats and pig. And we can do more of those in a day because they’re smaller.

Do the farmers have to pay a specific cost each time?

Oh, yeah. It’s a fee for service basis just like any other facility. They charge you for the slaughter and they charge you for the processing and packaging.

Is it just the co-op members who are able to use it or can other farmers use it too?

In our particular case, other farmers can use it when it’s not needed to process members’ animals. So members have priority access to it.

Is this a more expensive option than a centralized facility?

It’s comparable to a facility of this size, this capacity. It’s not comparable to a very large plant. They’re really completely different entities. There’s really no way a very small plant can be cost-competitive to what large plants can do.

Do you find that consumers are interested in meat that’s locally and sustainable produced and are willing to pay extra for it?

There’s a big demand for the type of meat we produce and so far there’s a value above and beyond the general commodity meats. Customers are willing to pay a premium price.

It seems like there’s a lot of interest out there.

Oh yes, we get inquiries literally every week from people who are interested in what we’re doing and who want to do it.

So is this something sustainable for small farmers?

The bottom line is [these units] work. It’s been working for quite a while now and paying all its bills and paying all its employees.

It’s financially sustainable?

It’s a good economic development. The amount of money that went into this project to get it started — private money and some grant money to do some of the study work, the design work — has been paid back many-fold.

How was the Land Trust involved in putting this together?

Lopez Community Land Trust was approached by a group of farmers and other interested consumers to help with the development of the project. They agreed to do that and subsequently did the development work. They were the entity that handled the development work, the design and building, and part of what they did was start a co-op to be the operating organization. Today the Land Trust is still the owner of the unit.

Were you involved in that?

I actually was involved in some of the early work, and then I was hired by the Land Trust as the project manager to do the design and development work and actually get it built and operated.

Do you have a background in engineering?

I’m an engineer.

Ah ha! You’re an engineer but you’re also a farmer, clearly.

I’m mostly a farmer now [laughs] but I’ve become a mobile slaughter engineering consultant. I work with a company that builds these trailers for people.

What’s the company named?

Trivan Truck Body. They’ve built about seven of them.

Why did you decide to start farming and to dedicate yourself to small-scale, sustainable farming?

That was a gradual transition. I didn’t wake up one morning and decide I was going to dedicate myself to small-scale agriculture. But I have a farm and I decided to start using it. Then it became obvious that there are some problems related to making a small farm profitable. And I started working on ways to help that.

Are you working on any other of those problems?

I’m involved with a number of organizations that are working on keeping farmers farming. But I think one of the bigger issues that we face is the demise of small farms and the loss of farmland through other uses.

That leads me into my final question: If you could tell people one thing about our country’s food system, what would you most want them to know?

Stop paving the best farmland in the country.

Photo courtesy of Lopez Island Farm