It’s standing room only at many local meat lockers. Consumers are bypassing grocery and large chain stores to fill their coolers with abundant locally grown meat.
The backup in the supply chain could drive some producers to do their own butchering and sell it directly to customers.
Joe Horner is an Extension ag economist at the University of Missouri. He says if the value is there and if the marketing contract doesn’t prohibit it, there will be opportunistic slaughter of animals for local consumption.
“I’m sure there are rural communities out there, Amish communities where people are going to be selling live animals and they’re going to be going back under the walnut tree and stringing them up. Given the alternatives in some cases, which hopefully we don’t get there but we may, of having to destroy animals with no value, I think that’s a good alternative,” says Horner. “My generation and older, a lot of rural communities kept those heritage skills on how to butcher hogs and kept it as a means of pride. But there aren’t that many people who still know how to work up a hog.”
Of course, there are inspections and other requirements that must be met to legally sell meat directly from the farm. But it may be worth looking into.
“Bread and butter farmers are getting more serious about local food supplies, and I hope it’s a trend that stays,” says Horner. “We’re seeing a lot of young and beginning farmers see that as an entry point because it’s a differentiated product. They can sell directly to the consumer and capture some of the distribution and retailing market and make a smaller-scale farm viable. I think we’ll see more of that going forward because of the current food supply issue.”
Horner says this all hinges on consumers. If the consumers come out of this with a relationship with farmers and want to develop a local food supply, it will be very positive for the future of the local food industry.
