As COVID-19 has spread across the country over the past two years, a shortage of meat has emerged. And it wasn’t for lack of animals. The pandemic spread rapidly through large, overcrowded slaughterhouses, forcing them to close temporarily. Farmers and ranchers suddenly had nowhere to send their livestock. The grocery store shelves were empty; meanwhile, mature animals were killed and buried in the fields.

Like many fragilities that COVID-19 exposed in our food system, the shortage in slaughterhouses was a looming disaster. Small-scale meat producers have long suffered from a lack of access to processing facilities. Slaughterhouses serving small farmers and organic herders have been extremely rare for decades – a problem known as the “meat processing bottleneck”.

This matters because farmers and ranchers who meet the demand for local meat, many of whom adhere to organic practices, deserve our support. They are often small businesses that focus on animal welfare, environmental stewardship, and selling fresh, healthy food directly to their communities. Small-scale slaughterhouses also support the local food supply, generate local income and create jobs that often pay high hourly wages and promote healthier and more flexible working conditions. Consumers are realizing the many benefits of small-scale farming and processing and, unsurprisingly, buyer demand for meat produced by these methods has increased.

But these small-scale facilities cannot keep up with demand. They face a series of financial, labor and regulatory hurdles. Meat processing regulations are largely written with large processors in mind and only work for those who have achieved such economies of scale that it is almost impossible for small processors to compete. This compounds corporate consolidation and creates a market in which large-scale facilities slaughter and process the vast majority of the meat in our food supply. For example, just four companies now control more than 80% of the beef processing market.

As a result, small certified organic producers have lost almost all preference, convenience and flexibility regarding when and where they can slaughter their livestock. Without significant scaling up, these farmers cannot access large facilities, and currently face a wait time for slots at slaughterhouses ranging from 6 to 18 months. Worse still, many must drive for hours and hundreds of miles to reach a facility ready to accept them. These long journeys are not only expensive, labor-intensive and environmentally taxing; they are also hard on the animals, a particular problem that these farmers with high animal welfare standards strive to avoid. This unnecessary stress on the animals also affects the quality of the finished meat that these producers take great care to provide.

Organic meat producers face additional challenges. Due to strict National Organic Program standards, certified organic breeders who do not have access to certified organic processing facilities cannot market or label their products as organic or use the USDA Certified Organic seal, even if their animals have been raised to organic standards. standards. At a time when organic meat is one of the fastest growing organic food categories on the market, this is yet another hurdle for farmers who work hard to communicate the integrity with which their product has been produced.

Fortunately, promising legislation is in the works. In February 2021, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Strengthening Local Processing Act in the House and Senate. The bill provides processing facilities that employ 500 or fewer workers with the funds to grow and expand to meet the demands of producers and consumers. It also supports a scaled-up approach to slaughter and processing, which current regulations do not take into account. Many well-established national organizations endorse the bill, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the American Association of Meat Processors, the Niche Meat Processors Assistance Network and the National Farmers Union. Public input is crucial, and now is the time to reach out to members of Congress and voice their support for the bill.

Consumers can also support local and organic producers by buying directly from local farmers and ranchers at farmers’ markets and through community-supported agricultural programs. Some farmers offer herd-sharing programs that allow consumers to purchase an animal from a local herd, pay the rancher to care for the animal, and get the meat back when the animal is harvested. Under this type of arrangement, consumers can confidently buy certified organic animals, even if the meat cannot be labeled as such due to a lack of access to certified organic slaughterhouses.

Whether it’s supporting policies that increase access to slaughterhouses or choosing carefully how and where to spend money on meat, support for small-scale organic meat producers is crucial. This will help build the resilience of our food system to future challenges beyond COVID-19 and help build healthy communities from pasture to plate.

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Photo courtesy of Léon Ephraim, Unsplash