Slaughterhouses have been declining in the Bay Area and around the country, according to the recent New York Times article Slaughterhouse Shortage Stunting Area’s Eat-Local Movement. This is, the article explains, both an effect and a cause of the national transition from small, sustainable producers of meat to large ones.
Here in Washington State, with the recent closure of Thundering Hooves (whose owners are restarting and restructuring their business, now called Blue Valley Meats), and with the growing interest in grass-fed meat, it seems we need to think about what it takes to help small- and mid-sized producers succeed. Apparently, one of the barriers is access to a nearby slaughterhouse/processing facility.
One local producer of sustainable meat and dairy is working on an answer. Sea Breeze Farm is looking to buy Thundering Hooves’s old processing equipment and open a processing facility on Vashon Island, available for use by other local meat producers. It’s an expensive undertaking, in the tens of thousands of dollars, but not so expensive as it would be without the opportunity from Thundering Hooves. Sea Breeze is raising funds from supporters to accomplish this goal.
If you’d like to invest in our region’s food sovereignty and ability to support local producers of sustainable, nutritious meat, consider donating to this project. Contact information is at the Sea Breeze Farm website. You can also talk to them at the U-District or Ballard farmers markets this weekend.
Seattle Local Food 
Here at Full Circle we’ve developed a process to allow our members that same ability to directly support local, Washington growers of grass-fed pastured and all-natural beef and pork. Soon to be organic beef and pork. The demand is out there, our members love it, we love it, our local small processor loves it and so do the growers.
It’s great to see communities getting together to come up with creative solutions for our region, and hopefully, eventually our countries broken food system. Way to go Sea Breeze.
Does local producers in this case mean local to Vashon Island? … surely not ferrying animals?
Please take a look at the Mobile Matanza – a very successful but little publicized USDA certified mobile processing truck-facility, developed by TCEDC, the Taos County Economic Development Corporation. http://www.tcedc.org
Their mission can be summarized as local food & cultural sovereignty.
The motivation of co-Directors Terri Bad Hand & Patti Martinson was as described above – to assist local organic and natural systems ranchers & farmers to remain productive & profitable.