POLLUTION
UPDATE
The Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) recently sent Columbus, Ohio-
based Hexion Inc. a pre-enforcement notice
regarding multiple hazardous waste law
violations at Hexion’s facility along the
Willamette River in Springfield. DEQ
observed numerous hazardous waste
labeling violations during a May 2 inspection,
as well as an “open 55-gallon drum of
phenol contaminated insulation from a
leaking pipeline.” DEQ characterized phenol
as “a highly toxic hazardous waste.” DEQ
also discovered that Hexion had failed to
conduct weekly hazardous waste
inspections, and that Hexion hadn’t
conducted these inspections since January
1. DEQ characterized the violations observed
during the inspection as “pos[ing] the risk of
significant environmental harm,” and has
referred them to its Office of Compliance &
Enforcement for additional enforcement.
B Y J E S LY N L E M K E
LOCALLY RAISED LAMB
PROCESSED AT THE FAMILY
OWNED USDA CERTIFIED
MOHAWK VALLEY MEATS
Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
CORRECTIONS/
CLARIFICATIONS
A story in the June 8 issue of EW gave
the wrong date and time for two
performances by Dear Lemon Trees and
stated incorrectly that the shows were sold
out. The trio will perform at 8 pm Sunday,
June 18, at the Axe and Fiddle in Cottage
Grove. Admission is free. The story also gave
incorrect information for a June 14 concert
at Territorial Vineyards.
In our June 1 Summer Guide we ran a
listing about a solar eclipse viewing on
August 21, from 9-11:30 am at Alton Baker
Park, hosted by the Eugene Astronomical
Society. Oops. That event in the park is not
occurring but Oregon State University is
holding a three-day eclipse celebration,
check it out at communications.oregonstate.
edu/space/events/festival-information.
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY INFORMATION
Weyerhaeuser Company, 541-746-
2511, plans to hire Strata Forestry Inc, 541-
726-0845, to spray 80.8 acres near
Deerhorn Road off the McKenzie Highway,
with Garlon 3A, Forest Crop Oil and/or High-
Light Blue. See ODF notification 2017-771-
06981, call Brian Dally at 541-726-3588
with questions.
Dan Kintigh, 541-746-1842, plans to
spray 168.9 acres south of Deerhorn Road
and Hendricks Bridge Park off the McKenzie
Highway, with Roundup Pro, Garlon 3A,
Polaris SP, Forest Crop Oil and /or AD-Wet 90
CA. See ODF notification 2017-771-07209,
call Brian Dally at 541-726-3588 with
questions.
Giustina Resources, 541- 485-1500,
plans to hire Strata Forestry, 541-726-0845,
to spray 6.2 acres southwest of Finn Creek
with glyphosate and/or sulfometuron
methyl. See ODF notification 2017-771-
07223, call Brian Dally at 541-726-3588
with questions.
Mason Bruce & Girard, 541-973-1953,
plans to hire Nick’s Timber Services Inc, 503-
910-1120, to spray 408.9 acres north and
south of Highway 126 between Florence
and Mapleton and near South Canary Road
with glyphosate, imazapyr, metsulfuron
methyl, sulfometuron methyl, aminopyralid
and metsulfuron methyl and/or MSO
Concentrate. See ODF notifications 2017-
781-07114 and 2017-781-07120, call Brian
Reel at 541-997-8713 with questions.
Compiled by Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: 541-
342-8332, forestlanddwellers.org
6
June 15, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
PHOTO: TRASK BEDORTHA
MUCH NEEDED SLAUGHTER
Demand for locally raised meat has grown
I
’m peering in at a cluster of dusty, nervous sheep in a cattle
chute while standing next to sheep farmer Lynne Miller. She
just drove four of her lambs down from Corvallis to the Mo-
hawk Valley Meats slaughterhouse outside Springfield.
It’s the sheep’s last couple minutes on Earth, as the oth-
er end of the chute leads to the slaughterhouse’s knocking box
where they’ll be shot in the head with a captive bolt gun. They
are pretty quiet; there’s no bleating. A sign on the exterior of the
chute reads, “ANY ANIMAL LEFT UNATTENDED MUST
HAVE ACCESS TO WATER.”
Inside the slaughterhouse, it’s a different story. The machine
that grinds the meat into ground beef is terrifically noisy. Hun-
dreds of pounds of raw beef are mechanically lifted into a hopper,
which cuts the ground beef into even smaller pieces. A team of
employees is shaving big wet slabs of red beef off a cow car-
cass, their long knives deftly slipping through the flesh as though
through potter’s clay.
The closure of three slaughter facilities in Lane County and its
environs over the past five years (most recently Stanton’s Slaugh-
ter House in Albany in January and Custom Meat Co. in Eugene
last June) has shifted new customers onto the four remaining
slaughterhouses in the area, creating intense pressure on them to
meet increasing demand from the farm-to-table food movement.
But fewer entrepreneurs in the Willamette Valley these days are
willing to start the gritty affair of a full-time slaughtering busi-
ness.
Much of the Willamette Valley’s obsession with locally raised
lamb, beef and pork comes through the doors of Mohawk Val-
ley Meats, or the three smaller mobile slaughter facilities in the
region.
“My parents raised me with the philosophy that we are om-
nivores, a little more on the carnivore side, and it’s okay to eat
animals. It’s also our job to treat them humanely and responsibly
for the time they are here,” Miller says. Her farm, Slippery G
Family Farm, brings roughly 50 to 55 lambs down to Mohawk
Valley Meats for butchering each year. She sells lamb cuts at the
Corvallis Farmer’s Market.
Farmer’s Helper in Harrisburg, Elmira Meat Locker in Veneta
and 4-Star Meat in Eugene are all mobile processing facilities
and make house calls to smaller backyard farmers with a slaugh-
ter truck. It’s a different clientele than the customers of Mohawk
Valley Meats. The ongoing closures of their competing busi-
nesses, like Custom Meats Co. in Eugene, means these remaining
slaughter facilities are often booked several months in advance
during the busy season.
“Elmira Lockers and 4-Star Meat in Eugene there, we all
picked up some work from them [Custom Meat Co],” says Colt
Ross, owner of Farmer’s Helper. “If you want my opinion, it’s a
dying breed.”
Ross and facilities like his work with the many backyard farm-
ers in Lane and Linn counties, who may just have two or three
lambs, pigs or beef for a 4H or Future Farmers of America project.
“If you drive around the countryside, if you pay attention to
people’s backyards, there’s a lot of people who have animals.
People wanting to know where their meat comes from is bigger
than ever,” he says.
Not everyone is experiencing the local slaughter boom.
“Mom’s not home-cooking a meal anymore,” says 71-year-old
retired butcher Jerry Gates in Cottage Grove. He’s talking about
how fewer and fewer families are willing to buy a cow as a half
or quarter carcass. There’s weariness in his creaky voice on the
phone as he tells me his dad’s USDA-certified facility closed
down in 1989, and his own stationary slaughterhouse closed
down about five years ago. Now, Gates Family Tradition mostly
sells jerky. He reminisces about the days in Lane County when
farmers could let their cattle roam free along country roads.
“When they changed the laws, you’re liable for your beef run-
ning into a car. You can’t do that no more,” Gates says.
Another boon to the backyard meat movement is that the Wil-
lamette Valley, specifically, produces really, really good grass.
“The Willamette Valley has a really long grazing season, prob-
ably eight months of grazing in a year, which is considerably
longer than a lot of places. It grows great grass,” says Rebecca
Thistlethwaite, program manager for Niche Meat Processor As-
sistance Network, which runs out of Oregon State University in
Corvallis.
On the state level, the farm-to-table movement is slowly bulk-
ing up the number of USDA-certified facilities available, Thistle-
thwaite says.
“Cinder Butte Meats in Redmond, Oregon, is in the process
of becoming USDA certified. A plant in Roseburg that used to do
meats closed a few years ago. Someone recently purchased that
plant and is resurrecting it as a USDA plant. So those are positive
signs,” she says.