By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

EDGEWOOD, Iowa — As co-owner of what’s been called the largest and busiest custom-processing meat locker in the state, Terry Kerns said the new rules for meat inspection the USDA seeks to impose on an already heavily-regulated industry would financially cripple every small meat processing plant in the United States.

“It will devastate the small, rural meat lockers – and to make things worse, it really accomplishes nothing,” said Kerns, who co-owns Edgewood Locker, Inc. with his brother, Jim, both of whom officially joined the Clayton County company in 1980.

In fact, if this proposed law becomes a reality, Kerns said it would likely change his entire business, which would be forced to shrink its workforce of 125 full-time, part-time and seasonal employees down to only about 20 workers.

What’s more, Kerns said the new rules would eventually – and irreversibly – change the face of the town’s business district, possibly forever.

“We work with about 20 different groups we process for and we’d put them out of business,” he said. “Twenty to 30 other small businesses would have no place to go.”

Established in 1966 by Terry and Jim’s parents, Tom and Joann Kerns, Edgewood Locker has gone through some very significant changes over the past 44 years to reflect its exponential growth and success, which would now be threatened by the new rules.

In 1997, for example, the Kerns brothers spent over $1 million constructing a new 12,000-square-foot facility, which nearly doubled the size of their former downtown facility. In 2004, they spent another $300,000 on two additional buildings at 6,000 square feet, totaling 18,000 square feet.

In addition to housing a retail meat store, catering service and smokehouse at the main facility in Edgewood, Edgewood Locker has another location in Arlington, Iowa.

Jess Aulwes, the company’s HACCP manager, said the proposed law is an issue that could easily have been changed without many consumers or even processors knowing it was happening, if it weren’t for the American Assoc. of Meat Processors (AAMP).

“We, as a very small meat processor, as defined by the USDA, are very concerned about the consequences of the proposed “reinterpretation” of the current law,” she said.

“Although we are confident that Edgewood Locker, Inc. would weather the storm, it would drastically change the way we do business.”

If enacted, Aulwes said the new rules would also force the company to move away from inspected processing, due to the expensive testing requirements the USDA would require.

“The cost associated with the testing would be too great for us to afford,” she said.

“We would most likely be forced to become a strict custom facility, which we have never been to the best of my knowledge.”

Aulwes said she estimated the initial testing at Edgewood Locker would cost between $350,000-850,000, depending on how the proposal is interpreted, which wouldn’t include the testing of the company’s sanitation programs.

“Additional testing would also be required to verify that our procedures continue to work,” she added. “The AAMP has estimated it would cost an average facility $30,000 annually to maintain.”
As one of the largest employers in a town of 923 residents, Edgewood Locker wouldn’t be able to avoid layoffs as a result, which would subsequently affect the company’s clientele.

“The ruling change would affect all of the customers that we process inspected products for,” Aulwes said. “Anyone who resells or wholesales our product would also be forced out of business. There are definitely smaller facilities than ours that would inevitably close if such a change were mandated.”

Moreover, if the USDA requires validation of prerequisite programs (i.e., sanitation, etc.), Aulwes said this would affect all U.S. custom meat processors.

“Facilities that do not process any inspected product would be required to test the adequacy of their sanitation programs,” she said. “This, in turn, could result in the closing of several custom facilities as well.”