Local meat producers hail county’s effort to establish commercial animal processing facility in Yaphank

There’s a small but growing agricultural sector in Suffolk that county officials and sustainability experts are looking to boost: meat production.

About a dozen farmers in Suffolk currently raise livestock for meat production — cattle, bison, sheep, pigs, goats, rabbits and poultry. But lack of a local meat processing facility is limiting what might otherwise prove to be a burgeoning segment of the local agricultural industry and the local economy.

Farmers who raise livestock must ship their animals long-distance for slaughtering and processing — to facilities upstate or out-of-state. It’s complicated, expensive and inhibits the growth of the individual farm operations as well as Suffolk’s livestock sector overall.

County Legislator Al Krupski is spearheading an effort to establish a commercially accessible animal processing facility at the Suffolk County farm in Yaphank, where a county-owned slaughterhouse — the only one of its kind in the county — was operated by Cornell Cooperative Extension until the end last month. But that facility was not available to local farmers; it processed only livestock raised on the county farm and was used as a butcher-training facility for inmates from the Yaphank and Riverhead jails. The meat produced there was used in the jail cafeterias or donated to Island Harvest and other local food banks.

The county is looking for a private sector partner to renovate the facility and operate it on a commercial basis. To that end, official this week issued a “request for expressions of interest” seeking out firms that might be interested in the idea. (See document, below.) Depending on the response, the county may then issue a more formal request for proposals.

Local farmers say they’d love to be able to have their animals processed at a local facility.

“It would be a great thing to have such a facility on Long Island,” said Tom Geppel, who founded 8 Hands Farm in 2011 with his wife Carol Festa. They raise heritage sheep, pigs and chickens on 35 acres of rolling farmland on Cox Lane in Cutchogue.

Geppel and Festa are currently pasture-raising 140 sheep and 42 pigs. They also have a flock of 1,000 laying hens.

They ship their animals to a facility upstate for slaughter and processing, Geppel said. Since they don’t have a cutting room on site, they need to have their animals killed, USDA-stamped, cut and packaged for sale — unless an animal is being sold whole to a restaurant that can do its own butchering. But that’s a very limited market, he said.

Hal Goodale, who raises steer, pigs, goats and chickens on 44 acres in Aquebogue, says he ships his animals to a USDA-inspected facility in Rhode Island for slaughtering.

“They kill a steer and put it back in my trailer for $100,” Goodale said. “I’d gladly pay $300 to a local facility to avoid having to make the trip.”

Ed Tuccio and Dee Muma, who raise bison on their Riverhead farm, take their animals to a facility in New Jersey. They’ve both been advocating for a local slaughterhouse for years.

“I’m thrilled that Al [Krupski] is doing this,” Muma said. She said she’d love to be able to readily harvest bison from the couple’s farm and serve it at her Main Street eatery, Dark Horse Restaurant, without having to ship the animals to New Jersey for processing.

“This is one of the issues I started to tackle when I was first elected to the Suffolk County Legislature because, as a farmer, I know how critically important meat processing is to the agricultural community, the economy of the East End and to food security on Long Island,” Krupski said in a press release announcing the county’s effort.

Krupski said the added expense of shipping animals off-island for processing makes raising livestock less affordable and “serves a deterrent to those who might consider meat production.”

The sector presents a growth opportunity for Suffolk’s agricultural industry, as people become more aware of the farm to table movement and the health and environmental benefits of eating locally grown food, Krupski said.

Those benefits — and concern for their families — are what led both Geppel and Goodale to establish their farms.

Geppel, an accountant who holds down a full-time job as a tax consultant with a NYC financial firm, says watching the documentary film Food Inc. was a turning point for him and his wife.

“It opened our eyes about industrial food production,” he said.

He was particularly inspired by a Virginia farmer interviewed by the filmmakers, Joel Salatin. Geppel and Festa visited Salatin’s farm and after a tour started thinking about a farm of their own.

Goodale shares a similar story.

He’d been a contractor and wanted to provide his children with locally sourced “real food,” he says.

“I was in a supermarket and looked at the label on a gallon of milk and it listed ingredients,” Goodale said. “Why would a gallon of milk have ‘ingredients’?”

In addition to raising livestock for meat, Goodale raises dairy cows and goats and produces milk and cheeses.

Both farms raise chickens for meat and eggs, as well. Both sell their produce at farm stores: Goodale Farms on Main Road in Aquebogue and 8 Hands Farm on Cox Lane in Cutchogue (just south of Route 48). They both sell produce grown on their farms in addition to their own meats. Goodale sells his milks and cheeses and ice cream he produces with North Fork Chocolate Company chocolatier Steven Amaral. Geppel and Festa sell yarn and products made with wool from his flock of sheep, as well as a variety of locally produced foods, such as coffee from Aldo’s of Greenport.

They both see opportunity for growth.

Geppel and Festa are working on adding a food processing and cooking facility to the 8 Hands Farm operation. Geppel, who once left his job in the financial sector to attend culinary school, says his love of good food is at the heart of what drove him to farming. He wants to be able to offer prepared meals for busy people on the go, so that they can enjoy good, local food despite a busy lifestyle, he says.  The farm has all town permits and is awaiting final action by the county health department before it can begin the renovation work.

Goodale said he’s hired architect Chuck Thomas to design an addition to his existing farm store and kitchen, so he can expand his retail and cooking/baking operations.

There is a growing appetite for locally sourced meat and poultry, as there is a growing awareness of factory farms and confined animal feeding operations, Geppel said.

“Increasingly, people want to know where their food is coming from. People want to know their farmers,” he said.

While a local meat production facility would be a boon to his farm and other meat producers in Suffolk, Geppel expressed some skepticism about the financial viability of such an operation, especially if it must survive on serving local farmers only. He just doesn’t think there’s the critical mass necessary to make the facility sustainable.

But many slaughterhouses have a wholesale meat operation, too, Geppel said.

“They serve private farmers but they also buy animals for processing and selling to restaurants,” he said. “They’d have to bring in animals from outside, from other farms, to distribute through the region. They’d buy them from a consolidator, who buys from different farms,” Geppel said. “But the market’s going to be in Manhattan,” he said, so Yaphank is “a difficult location” just by virtue of its distance.

Geppel is hoping the county’s plans pan out. It would make a difference in his operation and encourage others to enter the industry.

The county will conduct a tour of the Yaphank facility for people interested in submitting an “expression of interest” on Thursday, January 28 beginning at 10:30 a.m. Registration is required by 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 25 (email to august.ruckdeschel@suffolkcountyny.gov).

The expressions of interest are due by March 1.

Suffolk County NY RFEI – Meat Processing Facility