Source: MCDOWELL NEWS, 11/6/17

More than five years after it first opened, the Foothills Pilot Plant in McDowell County is no longer in operation. And this leaves many regional farmers in need of another place to take their poultry, rabbits and other small animals so they can be turned into packaged, USDA-approved meat. Located at 135 Ag Services Drive off of N.C. 226 South, the Foothills Pilot Plant opened in January 2012. It was the first community-administered, non-profit meat processing plant in the entire nation also inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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