Meals on Wheels: the Future of Sustainable, Ethical Meat

Coming soon to a highway near you: the mobile slaughterhouse.

Here's the scoop: alert reader Kristen Ridley tells me that when she went to research humane slaughterhouse options, she couldn't find any. She said that there is "the occasional (very occasional) small processor out there that doesn't exploit their workers and abuse the animals," but they are few and far between. Most slaughterhouses are big, industrial, churn-em-out operations, and if you've seen "Food, Inc.," you'll know what those are like.

Welcome to the scene the Mobile Slaughter Unit! In 2002, farmers in San Juan County, Washington, set out to find a way for small farmers to work with the USDA regulations and still slaughter their own meat. The result: "the first mobile USDA Inspected field slaughter unit." The truck can slaughter 10 cows, 24 hogs or 40 sheep per day and contains a cooler that can hold up to 6,000 pounds of hanging carcasses to allow it to operate for a couple days continuously.

Those who have read Omnivore's Dilemma might recognize the topic of the trouble with slaughterhouses in this day of industrial ag. Michael Pollan discusses the problem of trying to apply "one-size-fits-all rules" created for big operations to small farmers. The result is the shuttering of small slaughter operations. Pollan gives the example of federal regulations that require each slaughterhouse to have a bathroom for the USDA inspector. "Such regulations favor the biggest industrial meatpackers, who can spread the costs of compliance over the millions of animals they process every year, at the expense of artisanal enterprises," Pollan writes.

This is not to say that "artisanal enterprises" will never mistreat animals or their workers and will always keep things pristine and sterile, but I would venture to say it's more likely. Especially if the farmers themselves are slaughtering their own animals. And besides, shouldn't farmers have the right to slaughter the animals they raised if they can do it safely and effectively? Because of USDA rules, however, they generally aren't allowed to do so.

These mobile butchery trucks present great options to small farmers. Co-ops can own them collectively, or an entrepreneurial butcher can make rounds to small farms on a regular schedule offering the truck's services, to name just two ideas. In Kristen Ridley's opinion, "this is the future of sustainable, ethical meat." Do you agree?

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng