Meat processing hopes get $100,000

5/6/2009

By Patsy Nicosia

Meat processing hopes get $100,000

SUNY Cobleskill’s Meat and Fisheries Lab was the setting for a $100,000 announcement Friday as about two dozen livestock farmers and others gathered to hear about efforts to help them process and sell their products locally.
The $100,000 comes in the form of a grant from the New York Farm Viability Institute to the Northeast Livestock Processing Service, which plans to build a slaughterhouse and processing plant somewhere in the region.
The money will be used for project design.
Once that’s in place, an equity drive will kick off, representatives said.
The New York Farm Viability Institute has been funded by state Ag and Markets since 2005; the Northeast Livestock Processing Company was formed in ’06 to provide technical help to farmers interested in processing meat for sale.
“They’ve been a tremendous help to me,” said Warnerville beef farmer David Huse.
“I’m always skeptical of anything coming from the government, but this is a program that works.”
Mr. Huse said his operation is large enough that he doesn’t have problems finding someone to process his beef, but other, smaller growers end up waiting months for a slot because there are so few slaughterhouses in the Northeast.
Kathleen Harris, NELPSC coordinator, said the grant is a first step and will used to design a state-of-the-art facility to be located somewhere in the region.
“Even in lean times, good things happen,” said Anne Myers of SUNY Cobleskill, which she said will be partnering with the Farm Viability Institute to keep things moving ahead.
Both Assemblyman Pete Lopez and State Senator Jim Seward spoke to the project’s importance to local farmers and consumers.
“This will help answer the question: How do we connect our local growers more efficiently with the local population,” Assemblyman Lopez said.
“A processing facility in the region will make our communities stronger and our farmers more viable.”
Senator Seward stressed the importance of efforts like the Farm Viability Institute in helping improve farmers’ bottom line.
“We’ve fought to get funding for it because it’s so important and we’ll continue to keep fighting for it,” he said.
NELPSC, which has been grant-funded, plans to become self-supporting through fees collected for coordinating farmer services, including setting up livestock processing and by gathering members’ meat for larger institutional sales.
Already, NELPSC has brokered sales of farm-raised meats to colleges in the Capital District, as well as caterers, small groceries, and others interested in local food.
The New York Farm Viability Institute offers annual competitive grant programs.
Funded projects are selected by an all-farmer board of directors with input from active farmers from across the state.
In 2005, the Institute awarded 33 grants totaling $3.4 million.