CALS facility pushes on

The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) is making strides in its fundraising effort to build a new meat science facility that will provide beneficial research, outreach opportunities and teaching opportunities for students in the Animal and Veterinary Science program.

This facility will replace the current one, which was built in 1963. Building a new facility will allow for an opportunity to expand and create a more advanced facility with the most up to date equipment, said Assistant Professor of Meat Science Phil Bass.

“It’s far more than just the research, this is a land grant university, that means we need to have a balance of research, extension and teaching,” Bass said. “What the new meat lab will allow us to do is just balance that better.”

The plan is to have a small teaching classroom for more opportunities for interactions with professionals in this industry. Bass said their goal for professional interaction includes not just live animal and harvesting sectors of this field but within the restaurant community to tie everything together.

“It’s amazing what the team can do out there right now with the humble facility that we have,” Bass said. “To get the new facility, we’ll be able to do everything that we’re already doing and do it more effectively and efficiently.”

The new facility will provide a more efficient way for processing various types of meat and will allow for more innovation in this field. The facility is USDA certified, which requires a certain way of handling meat.

“If you’re going to process fresh meat or process packaged meat, like sausages or other packaged materials, you need to be completely separate facilities,” said CALS Director for Communications and Strategic Initiatives Carly Schoepflin. “Right now, for example, if we’re butchering meat and we need to do sausages the next day we need to completely finish out that operation, clean out the facility, move in different equipment and then do the packaged meat and vice versa.”

Bass said with this new space, they wouldn’t have to stop the production employees are working on in order to fulfill the teaching and extension requirements of the land grant mission.

Recently, The Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation donated a $1 million gift. The foundation is an Idaho-based foundation that donates to projects that support Idaho as a whole.

The president of the foundation, Harry Bettis, is very involved in the ranching and beef production industry in Idaho. Knowing what this facility will do for the community and the state of Idaho, Bettis saw the facility as an investment for the industry, said Schoepflin.

The new facility will move down the street from the current meat science center. It will be located on Perimeter Drive across from the parking lot near the Kibbie Dome.

Schoepflin said she understands moving to a location closer to the center of campus will increase the visibility of facility and, in turn, increase awareness about the work they do.

The estimated total cost for this facility is $8 million. The current amount raised for this facility is $4.725 million, putting them at just under 60% of the total cost. In order to get approved for building and the final design, they must show that they have raised 60% of the funds for the Idaho State Board of Education to approve the plans. Although they have not gone to the board yet, they are getting close, according to a CALS Agri Beef Center Progress report. Once they get to 80% of the funds raised, they can move to the construction process.

Right now, there are no approved blueprints for the facility, just the conceptual renderings.

Total donations amount to $2 million from Agri Beef Co, $1 million from the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, $1 million from CALS, $500,000 from Tom Nicholson, $200,000 from Northwest Farm Credit Services and $25,000 from private individuals.

CALS is hoping to have an opening for the facility in October 2023, according to the report.

Finishing what he started

Talks of a new facility have been in the works for many years but once a donation from Agri Beef Co. came in, a beef processing and packaging company that employs many alumni from CALS, they were able to move forward. Because of this, they are naming the facility after them. 

The project aims to recognize the hard work of Ron Richard, an individual who got this project started and former lab manager at Vandal Brand Meats who passed away last fall. 

“He did a lot of the work, the leg work, in talking with industry and getting people excited about the project and working with our team here to really put a vision to the project,’’ Schoepflin said. “So unfortunately, while he’s not here, this project is really being built on his shoulders and a lot of the work that he had done, which is why we’re naming the facility The Agri Beef Meat Science and Innovation Center Honoring Ron Richard.”

Fulfilling Industry Need

These two factors allowed them to start publicly fundraising in April 2019. Schoepflin said it’s exciting they’ve made this progress in such a short time.

“It underlines that this is a need for the industry and people are really excited about supporting us along the way,” Schoepflin said.

The new facility will also house Vandal Brand Meat operations. Currently students have the opportunity to work there under lab manager James Nasados and assistant manager Kacie Hoffman. Right now, Nasados and Hoffman are the only full-time employees at Vandal Brand Meats, the rest are students. Vandal Brand Meats employs 11 students this semester.

Even though the opening date is years away, they are already planning for the future and making sure students have the most up-to-date equipment. Bass and Assistant Professor of Meat Science Dr. Michael Colle work together often in creating the curriculum within this program.

“Dr. Colle and I especially are planning for the future and how we can secure funding to make sure we have the equipment that James needs to conduct day to day operations and things we may want to look at as far as research,” Bass said.

Bass said they use the most up to date practices in the industry and are regularly in contact with industry professionals. They also have a great relationship with the USDA inspectors. Vandal Brand Meats is known for its taste, “from the steaks all the way to the sausages, the bacons and the hams,” Bass said.

“Our students are known for award-winning products in sausage competitions and various different flavors and so this and having some of these new technologies is really going to allow, I think, enhanced innovation but also turning out more product for the end consumer,” Schoepflin said.  

CALS students benefit from the current facility, but the new, more advanced facility will open opportunities for other students, such as engineering majors, in regard to the system management and other types of related mechanisms.

Currently Winco sends their meat department managers from the nearby area to the current facility for training on procedures and up to date methods. The new facility will allow for more workshops like that for the industry and for community members. 

The Opposition

Members of Local Herbivores, a vegan club on campus, said they oppose the new facility. Local Herbivores President Kaylee Carr said she wants UI to focus on more sustainable food sources instead. Carr and Kendra Wilhite, member of Local Herbivores, suggested a stronger focus on plant-based food sources.

“We’re a club that promotes animal rights, sustainability and health on campus and these facilities go against all three of these pillars that we stand upon,” Carr said. “Animal agriculture is super unsustainable.”

Wilhite said she believes instead of going towards animal agriculture, the money should go toward the sustainability center on campus.

Carr said another good alternative would be the student-run farm.

Local Herbivores have protested this facility in the past. An active change.org petition outlines their belief that the current facility should be closed.

In September 2018, UI student Tenzin Nyima held a hunger-strike on campus. His hunger strike was in protest to the current meat facility, which he said he heard about during a Local Herbivores meeting. His hunger-strike was called off after five days in order to not sacrifice his health.

Plans For the Future

The facility plans are on track to move forward. Schoepflin said the rest of the money for the facility looks to be coming in soon and she feels confident it will come through.

This project will benefit the economy in the state of Idaho as the majority of agriculture is livestock agriculture, Schoepflin said. She also said she hopes the facility will bring transparency about how food gets from the farm to table and will lead to educating the public and changing opinions about the “safe humane handling of animals and what actually happens in the meats industry.”

“Really, it’s the balance of being able to fulfill the land-grant mission,” Bass said. “We’ll be able to do a lot more that way. We’ll be able to get a lot more of the student involvement. We’ll better prepare students who work there with more up to date facility and more up to date equipment. The team has done a great job keeping the equipment up to date and now it’s time for a new facility for it to truly manifest itself.”

Nicole Hindberg and Lex Miller can be reached at [email protected]