What Happens When a Region Loses Its Last Poultry Processor?

How the closure of one facility is affecting farms, homesteads, and local food access across Northern Michigan.

At the beginning of last year, something quietly happened in Northern Michigan that most people never noticed — but it had major consequences for local farms and local food.

In March of 2025, the last MDARD-licensed poultry processing facility in our region closed its doors to outside producers.

For many people, that might not sound like a big deal. But for small farms, homesteads, and youth agricultural programs, it created an immediate and serious challenge. Many farmers had already planned their poultry production for the year and ordered chicks, only to suddenly lose access to a place where those birds could be processed for sale.

Without a licensed processing facility nearby, farms that raise poultry suddenly had nowhere local to process their birds. The next closest licensed facility is 205 miles away.

That means a 410-mile round trip for every processing day.

For poultry farmers, this creates a ripple effect. Transporting birds long distances increases stress on the birds, raises costs, and takes valuable time away from the farm. Poultry processing often requires multiple trips throughout the season, meaning those miles — and the expenses that come with them — add up quickly.

But the impact goes beyond individual farms.

When local processing disappears, many farms are forced to scale back, lose important sales channels, or stop raising poultry altogether. That means fewer locally raised chickens available at farmers markets, in grocery stores, and through community food programs.

It also affects family homesteads and youth agricultural programs, including local fairs, that rely on licensed facilities to process animals safely and legally.

In short, when a region loses its last poultry processor, it doesn’t just inconvenience farmers — it weakens the entire local food system.

Northern Michigan has made tremendous progress in recent years building a strong local food economy. Farmers markets, community supported agriculture programs, and farm-to-table restaurants have helped connect people with the farmers who grow their food.

But that system relies on infrastructure that often operates quietly behind the scenes.

Processing facilities are one of those essential pieces.

When they disappear, rebuilding them is not simple — but it is necessary if we want local food to remain truly local.

At Danu Hof, this challenge is what sparked our effort to build a small-scale poultry processing facility that could serve not only our farm, but other farms in our region as well.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about why this issue matters, the real costs farmers face without local processing, and how rebuilding this infrastructure could strengthen our regional food system.

Because supporting local food doesn’t stop at the farm — it also requires the systems that allow that food to reach our communities and your tables.