Supporting the local economies. Very important stuff.

...With the herd in prime condition, (click title to entry - thank you) and the couple lacking food and space to keep them, they frantically called slaughterhouses throughout the state. After several days they found an opening, but their experience highlights a growing problem for small farmers here and across the nation: too few slaughterhouses to meet the growing demand for locally raised meat....



There is an article in the New York Times that is near and dear to my heart. It is supporting local economies. It isn't such a strange concept. The Kosher Market Place started very locally. And while the 'organic and wholesome' markets are entering with more livestock than even the Kosher market place offered, there is a trend of closures to those local Kosher butchers.

The problem is economics and upgrading the facilities. It is my estimation if these two businesses would combine forces and petition their state legislators as well as their federal legislators they might find some funding. The Kosher CULTURE should never lack for enough funding to support its existence. But, it would be have more and varied business if the facility was also servicing the 'organic' and 'range fed' livestock market.

The other alternative is for the farmers to form a co-op and ask from some assistance in purchasing one or more of the former Kosher facilities and upgrading it to carry its demand and allow them to expand. I don't know if there is simply a smaller meat market, but, that can be researched without too much trouble.

Basically, the small family farm operations that enjoy this higher income market are starting to struggle and that is not a good sign.

Last update - 17:34 04/01/2010

Another U.S. kosher slaughterhouse, another closure (click here)

By Gal Beckerman, The Forward The shuttering of a New York kosher poultry slaughterhouse for serious sanitary violations is once again putting the spotlight on a Hasidic sect, some of whose members have repeatedly defied the law. A federal judge imposed a temporary restraining order and injunction December 29 against further slaughtering and processing at the plant, which serves the ultra-Orthodox enclave of New Square, home to members of the Skver Hasidic sect. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York had requested these measures after numerous attempts by federal officials since 2002 to get the slaughterhouse to comply with the guidelines of the Poultry Products Inspection Act. The plant had been found by federal authorities to have numerous violations. As reported in a local newspaper,...

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