COLUMBUS, Ohio — A small-scale meatpacker in Gallia County has become the first in the state to slaughter livestock under the USDA’s Cooperative Interstate Shipment program.

The program will allow R&C Packing of Bidwell to slaughter cattle, sheep and goats and ship meat over state lines, without needing a federal inspection. The Cooperative Interstate Shipment program, authorized in the 2008 farm bill, allows small, state-inspected businesses with 25 or fewer employees to do this.

Meat products produced in these establishments are instead inspected by the state, but are subject to the same federal inspection process as larger facilities.

Before enactment of the 2008 farm bill, the Federal Meat Inspection Act and Poultry Products Inspection Act prohibited selling state-inspected meat and poultry products (beef, poultry, pork, lamb and goat) across state lines. This regulation was in sharp contrast to other state-inspected food products (milk, dairy products, fruit, vegetables, fish and shellfish), which are freely marketed across the country.

R&C joins 10 other Ohio companies that have joined the program since it started in 2012, but is the first to be certified for slaughtering.

“Being able to ship our products anywhere in the United States will open up great opportunities for our customers that want to expand direct marketing possibilities of their personal products,” said Jamie Graham, owner of R&C Packing. “It allows us to compete on another level with larger processors and provide added services to customers that are typically not available to them.”

Graham said his facility works with local producers to offer branded packaging and direct-to-consumer sales. Prior to this program, state-inspected businesses could only sell their products within their own state, and switching to federal inspection often required a large investment by the business.

J.B. and Charlene King of Gallia County have been raising high-quality specialty pork, beef and poultry and directly marketing their products to the local community. It was challenging at first, but they found ways to make it work.

They found a market for their pork in local restaurants, retail stores and home freezers, though they say it’s a lot of hard work. Being able to transport across state lines is a blessing, as the demand was there.

 “Being in Athens County, we are not far from Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Huntington,” J.B. King said. “There is a market in those cities for our products, but we couldn’t sell there. People can come here and buy our products, but we can’t sell to them in West Virginia. We have turned down a lot of business in the past because we weren’t allowed to deliver to West Virginia over the state line.”

Graham is already seeing increased demand as a result of the program, and expects that will continue. He employs 12 full-time workers and is looking to grow. “We are presently planning to expand our current facility and also our processing capabilities to accommodate larger volumes at this facility or another.”

“Initial interest was primarily among processors located near state lines, but interest has grown to include other businesses that also have an interest in selling in other states,” said Ashley McDonald, spokeswoman at the Ohio Department of Agriculture.