Micro Abattoirs – Relocalise Northern Rivers

In our quest to build our local food system, we are now collaborating with livestock farmers and other regional food advocates to bring a focus on our local meat supply.

As we are all too aware, service-kill options are gradually being withdrawn from small local farmers, not just in this region but across the country.

The solution is re-establishing the network of micro abattoirs of times gone by, however, it's no longer that straight forward. The main obstacle is the NSW food safety regulations. However there is a growing movement of small producers across NSW working to make these changes happen.

Quick to take action, Josh Wellman of Wellco Advisory and Banyula Farms has prepared this survey for livestock farmers to gauge interest in the campaign to build micro abattoirs in this region (and beyond).

This survey is for livestock producers, whether they sell direct to consumers, butchers and other processors or to the commodities market. We are also keen to hear from butchers, retailers, food service businesses. The information gathered will be used to assess the viability of the project, identify service requirements, and inform future planning, partnerships, and investment.

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this important regional, community-led initiative. Please feel free to share this survey with producers, agricultural businesses, processors, butchers, retailers, food service businesses, and anyone with an interest in strengthening our regional food system.

This is a community-led, volunteer project initiated by Josh Wellman from Wellco Advisory and supported by Relocalise Northern Rivers and Vitality Farms Northern Rivers. We are also collaborating with Clarence Valley Food Inc and seeking advice from Agroecology and Food Sovereignty Alliance, to co-ordinate the most effective strategy for getting the NSW regulations changed to meet the needs of small producers.

Participation is voluntary, and individual responses will remain confidential. Responses will be analysed and presented only in a consolidated format. A summary of the final survey findings will be shared with all participants and interested stakeholders to help inform future discussions and decision-making about the project.

Please feel free to share this survey with other livestock producers, agricultural businesses, processors, butchers, retailers, food service businesses, and anyone with an interest in strengthening our regional food system.

In June we made some important connections for the local food movement at a micro abattoir workshop in Grafton. Organised by Debrah Novak, Clarence Valley Councillor and head of Clarence Valley Food Inc, we heard from Glen Chapman, cattle farmer and committee member of the Agroecology and Food Sovereignty Alliance.

That morning, farmers and butchers from the mid north coast and the northern rivers learned of the progress made by advocates for small local meat producers to enable the construction of micro abattoirs (including mobile solutions) in Victoria.

An important research project outlines the urgency of the work required and the path forward for enabling small producers to continue providing for their local communities.

The main goals of micro abattoirs include:

reducing travel times, which are of course stressful on the animals
giving farmers greater control over ensuring highest standards for treatment of animals
giving customers guaranteed traceability of their meat
reducing inputs such as antibiotics
ensuring local food security by removing reliance on centralised industrial systems that are increasingly removing their service from small local farmers
(due to the much smaller scale) enabling far superior waste management, which in fact leads to the improvement of farm soils