To “meat” the needs of small-scale livestock operations in King County, the United States Department of Agriculture has issued a grant of inspection to a new meat processing facility just outside the City of Snohomish, clearing the way for a new service supporting local farmers.
Operated by Marzolf Meats, the new facility comes as welcome relief to the nearly 800 livestock producers operating in three western Washington counties that previously had no local means to process their animals under USDA inspection – a legal requirement for sale at farmers markets, grocery stores, and restaurants.
Work on this project began 10 years ago when the King County Agriculture Program received a $120,000 regional food grant from the King Conservation District, to study and site a new facility.
With assistance from King County, the Marzolfs applied for and received a series of grants totaling about $650,000 from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture for facility upgrades to meet USDA-inspection standards.
“Beefing Up Infrastructure” is a goal of King County’s Local Food Initiative to protect the long-term viability of the region’s livestock industry. In 2019 the average age of farmers in Washington was 57 – and even higher for butchers. It is important King County invests in supporting the next generation of farmers and butchers.
“Our family has been in this industry for five generations, and we are thrilled to finally be offering these services to better meet the needs of our customers and their customers,” said Darron Marzolf. “We also plan to offer an education and training program to provide industry newcomers the needed skills to earn a living doing this work as part of our commitment to ensuring that meat grown locally, sustainably and humanely remains a part of the American dining experience for generations to come.”
When King County launched the Local Food Initiative in 2014, area livestock producers requested technical assistance from the county’s Agriculture Program to relieve the processing bottleneck that existed for small-scale USDA meat processing.
“Prior to Marzolf Meats offering this service, our only option for pork processing was to drive several hours to Portland about 160 miles south or to Stevens County about 300 miles east, and our options were getting slimmer and more expensive each year,” said Christina Hahs of Gray Sky Farm in Maple Valley.
The long-haul effort to end these long-haul trips has resulted in two new units, offering livestock producers a one-stop-shop for USDA-inspected slaughter and USDA-inspected processing.
“These units are the future of the small-scale meat industry,” said Patrice Barrentine of the King County Agriculture Program who shepherded the process for a decade. “And this regional solution would not be possible without the dedicated partnership of West Valley Beef, Sno-Valley Tilth, Krainick Dairy, Harlow Cattle Company, the King Conservation District, the King County Local Food Initiative and of course Christeena and Darron Marzolf who made it all possible.”
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