Small Meat Lockers Working Group

To have a market for their products, appropriately-scaled meat processing facilities are a critical bottleneck for small to mid-sized diversified farmers. This book details the workings and results of a participatory action research working group composed of various stakeholders, attempting to revitalize small, decentralized meat processing in Iowa, USA, specifically by systematically linking the knowledge of otherwise-siloed assistance organizations. This book discusses the discovered five critical needs areas of small-scale meat processors: Business Planning & Feasibility, Financial Assistance, Plant Design, Plant Construction, and Labor. This book concludes, based on very concrete findings, that the conscious linking of various assistance providers, operationalizing Habermas' concept of communicative action has a particularly strong positive effect on rural development, because it encourages civic engagement by subjugating the bureaucratic drive for efficiency at the expense of civic communication. This book should be useful to professionals from academia, university extension, non-profits, and government agencies working on sustainable rural and food system development.

Arion Thiboumery is a Ph.D. Student in Rural Sociology, Sustainable Agriculture, and Meat Science at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA. He works extensively with small meat processors; his work as a whole focuses on extension to promote rural development and foster agricultural opportunities for small and mid-sized farms and communities.