ATLANTA – Georgia is the nation’s biggest producer of broiler chickens. But some small farmers have been pushed to the margins of this lucrative industry because they can’t get industrial slaughterhouses to process their poultry. Instead, they have to go out of state. That costs a lot of time and money.
Now, some small-scale farmers are debating a possible solution that has caught on in some other states: mobile slaughterhouses — vehicles where livestock can be killed, quartered, packaged and frozen.
A group representing farmers and consumers, Georgia Organics, has proposed using mobile slaughterhouses in Georgia as one solution to the problem. It also supports changing rules so farmers can slaughter more birds on their own properties without inspection and building more traditional slaughterhouses.
