Westport”S Meatworks Slaughterhouse Suspended After Cow Euthanasia
WESTPORT — State Agricultural Commissioner John Lebeaux fondly recalls a fateful meeting in winter 2015 at a Raynham Honey Dew Donuts.
Đang xem: Meatworks
That meeting was the “genesis of a South Coast slaughterhouse” in Westport. It might have also been the first step in a potential fight against hunger — if the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on food industries, according to Lebeaux and other sources.
Lebeaux, who had just been named the state Department of Food & Agriculture commissioner in 2015, met with state Rep Paul Schmid, as well as some South Coast meat farmers, only a short time after taking on the commissioner role.
Schmid and fellow farmers urged Lebeaux and the state to consider reopening a Westport slaughterhouse to assist local farmers. At that time, local farmers often traveled an hour or more to have their locally grown meat processed.
Schmid recalled when a slaughterhouse was open in Westport and longed for those days,
Fast forward five years later — Meatworks Inc. is doing better than expected, practicing social distancing and boasting a healthy workforce to boot.
Schmid credits the work of Lebeaux, state Sen. Michael Rodrigues and many stakeholders that led to the opening of the slaughterhouse in September 2018 and then the opening of the adjacent meat store a few months later that year. Now, pork, lamb and beef are processed locally from farms such as Triple S Farm, only a few miles away on Horseneck Road.
Schmid and Lebeaux were joined at that 2015 meeting by Andy Burnes, a Dartmouth farmer and president of the Livestock institute of Southern New England, the nonprofit cooperative of local farmers who organized to build the USDA-licensed slaughterhouse in the region.
“It has exceeded expectations,” Lebeaux said, calling it an example of how “targeted use of government money can bring about real economic change and food security to our residents.”
Schmid, of Westport, and Burnes have noted how well Meatworks’ plant and store have succeeded, especially lately. Schmid repeatedly used the phrase “flat-out” to describe the busy atmosphere there.
Burns recalled a Saturday in March when a line was forming outside the store before its opening.
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He and Burnes also reported a healthy workforce that sends employees home at the first sign of a COVID-19 symptom. Social distancing is practiced and the two facilities are always busy.
“It looks as though that this investment by the state is very timely. It shows that in this crisis over industrial meat packing, it underlies the importance of a local food economy and the importance of building our food processing infrastructure in the state,” Schmid said.
Burnes noted that the major issues that the Livestock Institute and Meatworks face are the growing demand for meat.
After all, Meatworks is only one of three meat processing facilities of its kind in the state.
Meatworks would like to team up with local pantries, but its primary focus at the moment is keeping up with the demand and keeping employees healthy.
“Meat plants are closing all over the country because of the absurd way they are running,” Burnes said, noting how poor social distancing has led to some of these plant closings and some animals euthanized, wasting meat in the process.
“It is really a shame. We have been lucky but I would also say that we have been careful. In Westport — you can’t go into a facility without a mask on. Everyone in that plant is social distancing all the time.”
“It is really indicative of the problems with industrialized food systems and the issue of having local processing, which is something that the Livestock Institute, with Meatworks, have been saying all along.”
Burns is very grateful to the various stakeholders that support local agriculture.
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“There has been a slow and steady growth of investment in local agriculture and it is only growing now. From my perspective, it is a wake up call to a lot of people,” Burnes also said.
Added Schmid, “It’s nice to know that the state has made investments that appear to be very wise.”
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