Author: Dr. Lauren Gwin, Small Farms Program, Oregon State University
Publish Date: Winter 2014
The Mobile Poultry Slaughterhouse, by Ali Berlow, founder of the Island Grown Initiative (and a long-time NMPAN member). This book is a well-written, thoughtful, and practical manual for building a humane and economical mobile poultry processing unit, based on Ali’s experience getting one up and running on Martha’s Vineyard, MA. (NSAC’s article about the book: http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/mobile-poultry-slaughterhouse/?ut...).
Poultry Plant in a Box
A new, modular approach to small-scale, inspected poultry processing is here: the first Plant in a Box (PIB), designed by Featherman’s David Schafer, is now up and running at Maple Wind Farm, in Vermont. PIB, built in a shipping container, is a self-contained facility designed to operate not only under USDA inspection but FDA inspection (e.g., to make chicken soup). The potential capacity is 200 birds/hour with 2 operators; more people and additional chilling storage can up it to 1000 birds daily.
Maple Wind is currently operating under Vermont state inspection and plans to transition to USDA. Their local food co-op chipped in $20,000 to be paid back in the product over 5 years.
More on PIB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Plant-In-A-Box/139642009567820 YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC4amKn7L10.