Last year, we hosted a training for our staff about local, pasture-raised pork. One of the speakers was Sarah Blacklin of NC Choices, an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS). NC Choices educates producers, consumers, and everyone in between about pasture-based pork; assists meat processors and other intermediaries in the supply chain; and helps producers find markets. The end goal is a sustainable food system via local production.
Sarah illustrated some of the inefficiencies of the usual model that small farmers follow to sell their meat products directly, and how items like GMO feed drive costs up. Not all farmers have access to a local farmers market or an area that supports local meat, like the Triangle. However, using an aggregator model can help all parties–small farmers, restaurants, stores like Weaver Street Market, and consumers–by creating a stable process and meat supply.
Below are Sarah’s slides and some of the things we learned.
NC Choices called all the hog, beef, pork, and poultry farmers in North Carolina who sell directly to consumers (for example, at farmers markets), and reached a little over a third of them. They asked the farmers what customers ask for most.
Customers’ top concerns were about what the animals ate (including if GMO feed was used), how the animal was raised, and if antibiotics were administered.
The problem NC Choices seeks to solve is this: “How can we scale sustainable, pasture-raised meats in an equitable system that provides a profitable option for farmers and their allied businesses while reaching a wider network of customers?”
In the last ten years, the number of local meat producers in North Carolina has increased dramatically. North Carolina is a likely place to have such an increase: we have both rural areas for farming and urban areas with populations who’ll buy pasture-raised meat. We also have long-time farmers who are transitioning out of growing other crops and could go into hog production.
But several things make sustainable hog production expensive.
The yellow dots superimposed on the map of hog farmers are the processing facilities that are able to work with small producers. The farmers must drive hogs to one of these facilities, then return to pick up the meat. And small producers don’t have tractor trailers; they drive a few hogs at a time.
After all this effort, the farmer would have to drive again to reach a farmers market or deliver to a restaurant. Many farmers would rather spend this time on the farm.
The diagram shows other costs, in addition to the time spent driving to the processor. The farmer spends a lot on food for the hog to grow to full size. Non-GMO feed costs a third more than conventional feed. A full size hog weighs 250, but after slaughter, there is only about 180 pounds of meat. Once the meat is cut into the retail parts, only 123 pounds remain. At this point, the farmer has an estimated $649 or more wrapped up in the meat, and must sell it at over a certain price per pound to make any profit.
A new supply chain model with an intermediary could help farmers by giving them an easy place to sell to, and giving stores and restaurants an easy place to buy from. Farmers would not need to worry about marketing their products or delivering them. Sourcing for buyers would be much easier. Firsthand Foods, started by NC Choices, is such an “aggregator.” (Weaver Street buys pork sausages, lamb, and other products from Firsthand Foods.)
In their survey, NC Choices learned that 80 percent of NC hog farmers would prefer to work this way, selling the whole animal and not having to market individual cuts.
Another issue is that most people don’t think in terms of the whole animal. For example, someone hosting a party for fifty people might order 50 flank steaks, not thinking that each animal only has two. NC Choices and Firsthand Foods work to educate consumers about different, less well known cuts of meat and the benefits of buying the whole animal.
The benefits include the following:
- Very little waste, which means cheaper prices on local meat (less labor in the processing)
- Ability to buy from a network of farmers
- A shorter supply chain, so that meat can be traced back to the exact farm where it originated
- The intermediary taking on the responsibilities of selling and marketing, so the farmer doesn’t have to
- The intermediary connecting local farmers and willing buyers, which will help the local meat industry grow
NC Choices and Firsthand Foods are helping the NC meat industry thrive.
View all the posts from the training, here: https://www.weaverstreetmarket.coop/learning-pork-supply/