By Katy Budge
May, 2024, did not bring good news for our Central Coast food industry. J&R Meats was going to close by the end of the month unless a buyer could be found. On May 31, the doors closed.
The full-service business had served the area in various iterations since about 2004. And by full-service, I mean FULL-service — everything from butchering animals, to breaking down the meat into various cuts, to making in-house items such as sausages and bacon. This might seem like ho-hum news to most, until you do a little digging and find out how unique these small processing facilities are.
Few and Far Between
While such meat processing businesses used to be scattered throughout the country, over the past several decades the industry has been consumed by consolidation. Some might even say mugged by monopoly since only about 50 processing plants are now responsible for almost 98% of the beef production in the United States. And, only four companies — JBS USA (owned by JBS in Brazil), Smithfield (owned by WH Group in China), Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company — collectively process approximately 80% of the nation’s beef, 60% of the pork, and 50% of the poultry.
With “consolidation” comes lower prices, yes. But that kind of market monopoly also leads to a Pandora’s mess of everything from higher worker mortality, rather shady pricing, and – as we learned during the pandemic – a very, very fragile supply chain.
If you want to put on your wonk bonnet and see for yourself, you can toggle around the data offered by this USDA website. The quick takeaway is that there are extremely few facilities offering the kind of services that J&R did. Thanks to their Mobile Harvesting Unit (and yes, that’s technical talk for the apparatus that kills the animals), they were often able to offer onsite harvesting for local cattle ranchers, a far better option than having to haul your animals miles and miles away.
To say it’s not easy to establish something like this is an understatement. Regulations for health standards abound, not only during build-out, but throughout the day-to-day running of the businesses. USDA inspections are necessary at pretty much start to finish, and none of it is cheap.
As such, consumer support of locally raised and processed proteins takes a bit of a financial commitment, but offers a lot of rewards. Not only are you supporting local agriculture in your community, you also know where your food comes from and how it’s being raised and processed. Let’s eat less meat, but better meat!
But J&R closed. Poof. Gone was the butchering facility. Gone was a place to purchase locally produced proteins. Gone was all the tedious work that had been put into developing a USDA compliant facility.
Enter Sinton & Sons!
On July 19, 2024 came the email that made me whoop out loud! The first few paragraphs read as follows:
Dear friends and customers of J&R Meats,
My name is Daniel Sinton and we have recently completed the purchase of J&R Meats, including both Paso Robles and Templeton retail stores.
I am a 5th generation San Luis Obispo County Rancher. We raise beef cattle in the Shandon and Pozo areas and have done so since my great great grandfather, Bernard Sinsheimer, started the Avenales Ranch (East of Pozo, CA) in 1875.
We are thrilled to reopen both of the stores and the processing of animals to the community under our new name: Sinton & Sons – Local Meats and Provisions. We are excited to have the beloved sausages you are accustomed to as well as locally sourced meats that you can trust.
It was almost too good to be true … except it was true. Not only had the facilities and services been saved, they had been re-opened by a respected family with 140 years in the local ranching industry, a venerable part of the community writ large.
At the end of that email was a photo of Daniel Sinton astride his horse, overlooking some of the stunning acreage of his family’s ranch. I don’t know if it was by design, but note that he’s wearing a white hat. By many accounts, he and his family did indeed come to our rescue. Let’s return the favor by $upporting their business .. and, by extension, our local agricultural community.