000311 Minnesota Inspection Changes Help Hog Operations

Eden prairie, MN - Jodi Yotter parks the "Porkmobile" and waits. Customers will come, attracted to the notion of buying farm-fresh meat from a local producer.

Yotter and her husband, Tom, raise hogs near Cambridge, Minn. Two years ago, plummeting prices all but ruined their family farm's future. They collected $17,818 for 180 hogs at market in April 1998; eight months later, when the same number of hogs fetched less than one-fourth the price, it was time to rethink the family business.

Today, the Yotters' direct-marketing business is possible because a year-old state meat inspection program is cutting out the middleman.

"I think we're an example of a dream come true," Yotter said. "We've had to do something innovative to keep ourselves going. Without the state, that wouldn't have happened."

In the past, the Yotters drove their hogs several miles to a federally inspected packer, where they were paid whatever the plant offered. Their meat would change hands at least four times - sometimes over a period of several days or weeks - before landing anonymously in grocery stores and restaurants.

Now the Yotters take their hogs to Lorentz Meats and Deli, a small, state- inspected operation in Cannon Falls. A few days later, the Yotters load packaged pork, bearing their own Circle Family Farms brand name, into two freezer- trailers - dubbed "Porkmobiles" I and II - to sell directly to consumers.

Lorentz Meats expanded its business from cutting meat for farmers to producing, packaging and labeling finished products after the state started inspecting plants last year.

Co-owner Mike Lorentz said his business would never would have prospered as well under the U.S. Agriculture Department. While Minnesota must follow the same guidelines as USDA, Lorentz said state inspectors are accustomed to dealing with smaller operations and can offer more help and suggestions for achieving compliance.

The Yotters saw their opportunity when Lorentz Meats began producing brand names for smaller producers, and took advantage of the emerging niche. Now they travel the state selling breakfast sausages, bratwurst and large, quarter-hog variety packages in parking lots and farmers' markets.

Before the program began, about 100 large packing facilities in Minnesota were the only in-state option for livestock farmers. Most of those plants are run by large, national food processors making their own brands, such as Austin- based Hormel Foods Corp.

Smaller processing plants, reluctant to deal with federal regulators in Washington, shied away from expanding their businesses beyond cutting custom meat for farmers and a handful of consumers.

Now, the 15 plants under state inspection are allowed to bring old-time sausage recipes and farm-fresh meat to grocery stores, butcher shops and restaurants across Minnesota.

"It's like untying our hands," Lorentz said. "We can actually sell stuff."

While USDA is required to inspect any operation that requests it, Lorentz said the department "isn't very excited about taking on small plants. It's not that they're wrong, and it's not that they're evil. They're just not good at dealing with guys like us."

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