Poultry Program

Access to local, safe, and humane slaughter and processing facilities is an issue that small family farmers face in rural areas across America. On the Vineyard, the difficulty of access is compounded by water. Island farmers now raise meat based on seasonal ferry rates and some are driving as far away as Vermont to have their animals processed. Not only does this long hauling cause the animals stress, ultimately diminishing the quality of the end product, but long haul transportation is also expensive for the farmer.

In the effort to provide a local size-appropriate slaughter and processing for Martha’s Vineyard, IGI launched a pastured poultry program in the spring of 2007. Since then, we have supported networking and education for poultry growers, and have developed a Mobile Poultry Processing Trailer that goes from farm to farm with our trained “chicken crew” to process birds for on-farm sales. The number of birds being raised for meat on the island has skyrocketed since we started this program, as more and more growers realize that they can have their animals processed in a safe, humane way on the island.

Currently, the MPPT is operated under guiding principles of safety, cleanliness and humane slaughter techniques. Our 4-person “chicken crew” has been trained in humane slaughter techniques. They bring our small trailer to farms and homes and process the birds right there on the land they were raised, with the participation of the growers.

We are working with regulatory agencies on the local and state levels to develop protocols and a formalized permitting process for mobile, community-based units like ours. The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources has been very supportive, viewing (as we do) mobile humane slaughtering of poultry as the first step towards developing the necessary regulatory and physical infrastructure to support small family farmers in their struggle to recreate community meat production across the state.

We also see the MPPT as foundational as we move towards processing facilities for four-legged animals. Looking ahead, we envision a mobile unit for 4-legged animals, and a USDA certified facility for value-added processing of meat. We are engaged with state regulatory agencies in developing a scale-appropriate permitting process for community based slaughter facilities, like the MPPT, as a step towards re-creating locally based, safe, humane slaughter for our Vineyard farmers, and as a model for other communities to learn from across our region and beyond.