{"id":58636,"date":"2024-10-23T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/?p=58636"},"modified":"2024-11-19T18:59:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T02:59:23","slug":"the-fate-of-denvers-last-slaughterhouse-is-on-the-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2024\/10\/23\/the-fate-of-denvers-last-slaughterhouse-is-on-the-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fate of Denver\u2019s Last Slaughterhouse Is on the Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 5, 2024 Update:<\/strong> Denver voters rejected<\/a> a slaughterhouse ban that would have shuttered Superior Farms.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

With her silver rings and turquoise bracelets, Mercedes Ortiz Gutierrez cuts a stylish figure. Her black cane with golden finishes could be mistaken for another accessory if she didn\u2019t lean so heavily on it. Gingerly, she shuffles to the gray couch in her one-bedroom apartment in Thornton, Colorado, just outside Denver and five miles from the slaughterhouse where her life irrevocably changed.<\/p><\/div>

\n

Then 46, Gutierrez had been working at Superior Farms for two years, skinning slaughtered lambs and cleaving off their noses, tongues, and hooves. She also restocked the facility\u2019s paper towels, soap, and aprons. On July 25, 2020, her hands clutching gallon containers of soap, she descended the stairs to the plant\u2019s storage room.<\/p>\n

Her manager had just ordered her to hurry. Rushed and unable to hang onto the handrail, Gutierrez misstepped, her right foot landing awkwardly on one of the stairs. X-rays later confirmed she\u2019d fractured her ankle, becoming one of the thousands of workers injured in an industry that is both physically and mentally hazardous<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This November, Denver voters will decide on a ballot initiative banning all commercial slaughter in the city. If it passes, Superior\u2014the city\u2019s only remaining slaughterhouse\u2014will shutter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At the clinic, she was given a boot, crutches, and medicine. But as the days went by, the pain worsened. She initially returned to work, but doctors soon forbade her from doing so. A few weeks later, she claims Superior fired her. \u201cFundamentally, I no longer served them,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n

In the following months, Gutierrez\u2019s pain was so severe she couldn\u2019t sleep or shower. She was eventually diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome<\/a>, a chronic pain following injuries that doesn\u2019t resolve as expected.<\/p>\n

In November 2022, Gutierrez settled a workers\u2019 compensation claim with Superior for $77,000. When asked for comment, Bob Mariano, Superior\u2019s Director of Marketing, told Civil Eats that the company worked with the Colorado Department of Employment to manage her case throughout treatment. Once she reached \u201cmaximum medical improvement\u201d\u2014where additional treatment is unlikely to improve a condition\u2014Mariano said a financial settlement based on workers\u2019 comp regulations was a standard last step.<\/p>\n

To Gutierrez, the compensation she received was not nearly enough. \u201cIt\u2019s not the same anymore with the pain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This November, Denver voters will decide on Initiated Ordinance 309, a ballot initiative banning all commercial slaughter in the city. If it passes, Superior\u2014the city\u2019s only remaining slaughterhouse\u2014will shutter. This would eliminate at least 160 jobs but, according to animal rights activists, also stop the suffering of the 300,000 lambs slaughtered there every\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

But what might appear as a choice between animal welfare and workers\u2019 livelihoods is actually more complicated: Stories like Gutierrez\u2019s suggest some workers might also suffer at Superior, while several experts believe closing one slaughterhouse could worsen conditions\u2014for animals, workers, local economies, and the environment\u2014in and around other meat processing plants. It’s now up to voters to decide: Will getting rid of their city\u2019s last slaughterhouse do more harm than good?<\/p>\n

A Local Measure with National Implications<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>

In 2020, America watched as outbreaks of COVID-19 ravaged meatpacking plants, killing hundreds of workers and infecting thousands more. As former President Donald Trump ordered<\/a> the plants to stay open, neither employers nor the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did much<\/a> to protect employees, who continued to fall sick and die. With slaughterhouse operations slowed, industrial feedlots grew overcrowded. Hundreds of thousands of animals were killed using \u201cdepopulation\u201d methods<\/a> like suffocation and drowning.<\/p><\/div>

\n

Yet, according to Austin Frerick, author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America\u2019s Food Industry<\/a><\/em>, industrial farming has faced little consequence for its actions (or lack thereof). \u201cThey paid a fine, which is the cost of doing business for them,\u201d he said. Bills<\/a> introduced<\/a> by members of Congress to add protections for workers have not gone anywhere.<\/p>\n

Over 600 instances of non-compliance with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards have been documented at Superior\u2019s Denver facility since 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI think people are just feeling like [there\u2019s been] such a failure of federal and state officials to do something,\u201d Frerick said. \u201cSo, they\u2019re now trying to least do something locally.\u201d Berkeley, California, will consider a slaughterhouse ban<\/a> in this year\u2019s election. Further north in California, the elimination of concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs)<\/a> is also on Sonoma County\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n

To Pro-Animal Future, the group behind Denver\u2019s initiative, Initiated Ordinance 309 is a pilot\u2014the first step in a plan to scale to bigger cities and subsectors of industrial farming. Sheep production<\/a> in the United States makes up less than 1 percent<\/a> of the nation\u2019s livestock industry. Unlike chicken or beef, lamb is a higher-end product, popular mostly for special occasions and among Middle Eastern, Caribbean, and African customers. Others may not even notice lamb\u2019s disappearance from supermarket shelves.<\/p>\n

Denver also offers an ideal laboratory for testing initiatives: Only about 9,000 signatures are needed to get a citizen-initiated measure on the ballot here. Compare that to say, Portland, Oregon, where over 40,000 signatures are required, and Denver\u2014even with its longstanding reputation as a \u201ccowtown\u201d that hosts the annual National Western Stock Show\u2014looks appealing to activists.<\/p>\n

\"Packaged<\/a>

Pre-seasoned lamb steaks prepared by Superior Farms in Denver, Colorado, which are sold at Walmarts across the U.S. (Photo credit: Raksha Vasudevan)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

The livestock industry argues the targeted closure of Superior, which processes up to 20 percent of U.S. lambs, would only scramble the sheep supply chain and create higher prices for consumers. They also claim it would ruin the livelihoods of Superior\u2019s employees, many of whom live in Globeville, a primarily immigrant, low-income neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Polling conducted by Superior earlier this year showed<\/a> that voters were evenly split on the issue, but in September, the Denver Democrats\u2019 Central Committee officially<\/a> opposed<\/a> the initiative, citing the loss of good jobs and associated benefits. With liberal voters in the city likely to follow the party\u2019s lead, the ban\u2019s chances of passing appeared slim in early fall, especially considering that Pro-Animal Future had only raised<\/a> about $244,000 for their campaign by the end of September.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u201cStop the Ban,\u201d a coalition of livestock industry associations, local restaurants, and labor unions that oppose the measure, has amassed<\/a> over $1.6 million from donors such as the Meat Institute, the American Sheep Industry Association, the Colorado Livestock Association, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association, and Iowa Pork Producers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take Pro Animal Future at their word when they say this is just the first step in their campaign to eventually ban meat,\u201d said Ian Silverii, founder of the Bighorn Company, which handles Stop the Ban\u2019s public relations. \u201cWe\u2019re intent on stopping them now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Animal rights activists, meanwhile, continue to vie for voters. In early October, Direct Action Everywhere, a network of animal rights activists, released undercover footage<\/a> captured inside Superior this summer. Video footage shows what activists call potential legal and ethical violations: one lamb that appears to be conscious after slaughter; another with a prolapsed uterus, untreated and headed to slaughter; and workers laughing, spanking animals, and simulating sex acts with machinery on the slaughter line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that Superior Farms is engaging in not only animal cruelty as prohibited by state law but also in violation of the federal Humane Methods Of Slaughter Act,\u201d Chris Carraway, an animal rights specialist at the University of Denver\u2019s Sturm College of Law, told media<\/a> following the release of the footage.<\/p>\n

Superior disagrees. \u201cNothing included in the footage we have seen is evidence of extreme violence, animal cruelty, or halal violations,\u201d Mariano told Civil Eats. \u201cThis is yet another example of proponents of the slaughterhouse ban misunderstanding or misrepresenting standard, legally compliant parts of the slaughter process in an attempt to shock voters and influence an election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s voters will now decide if they want such slaughter\u2014legal or not\u2014happening in their city.<\/p>\n

Tradeoffs of Work at Superior<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>

At the Superior plant in late August, Keyri Reyes, 28, was shivering in a puffer jacket inside Superior. The killing room was not in operation that day, but on a fast-moving assembly line, dozens of Black and brown workers carved large hunks of meat into chops, spareribs, and other cuts. Reyes, towards the end of the line, barely finished garnishing the lamb steaks with sprigs of rosemary and garlic and squeezing them into plastic packets before the next round barreled toward her. The pre-seasoned cuts would soon be sold at Walmarts across the country.<\/p><\/div>

\n

Despite moving quickly, Reyes was cold: The factory floor resembles a refrigerator, a far cry from the balmy air of her native Honduras. \u201cPoverty obligates one to leave one\u2019s country,\u201d she told Civil Eats. Reyes has dark, lively eyes and hands that gesture animatedly as she talks. But she hasn\u2019t necessarily escaped poverty here, earning $19.30\/hour\u2014just a dollar above Denver\u2019s minimum wage. Denver regularly ranks<\/a> among the country\u2019s most expensive cities to live, and even with this comparatively high wage, Reyes must share a rented house with six other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of folks that maybe that\u2019s one of the first jobs they\u2019re able to get when they move to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To offset the relatively low pay, Superior offers an employee stock ownership program (ESOP), which it touts as a rare perk in meatpacking. Frank Sabedra, who\u2019s worked in maintenance at Superior since 2022, says the ESOP, along with the company\u2019s 401K match and the camaraderie within his team make Superior a far better place to work than his previous employers, Amazon and FedEx. \u201cI plan on working here for the rest of my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Currently, less than a third of its Denver employees are currently vested in the ESOP (employees become eligible after three years), according to Mariano. Reyes, who\u2019s been at Superior since 2021, doesn\u2019t know if she is or will ever become an employee owner. Part of her confusion stems from being hired through an agency: She only became a direct employee of Superior two years ago. Either way, with limited English, a seven-year-old, and a mother to support, her options are limited.<\/p>\n

Reyes\u2019 situation is not unusual among Superior\u2019s employees. \u201cThey have employed folks that have trouble finding work in other places,\u201d said Nola Miguel, director of the Globeville Elyria Swansea (GES) Coalition, which works to improve affordable housing and health equity in the community. \u201cThere’s a lot of folks that maybe that’s one of the first jobs they’re able to get when they move to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the ban passes, Austin Frerick fears pushing out a smaller, independent player like Superior from an already consolidated industry might result in less competition for workers\u2014and even lower wages. He also wonders if it might simply displace the problems associated with industrial farming to another location: likely a more rural town, with less oversight than a large, liberal city. But Pro-Animal Future contends that Superior is not following the rules as it is.<\/p>\n

According to records acquired by Civil Eats through a Freedom of Information Act request, over 600 instances of non-compliance<\/a> with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards have been documented at Superior\u2019s Denver facility since 2019. Inspectors observed cuts labeled as halal even when not prepared according to halal practices, and products backdated by over a week.<\/p>\n

Other violations included fecal contamination on carcasses, inadequate ventilation, and flies spotted in various parts of the facility\u2014all of which threaten to spread bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella. (Superior points out its compliance rate with USDA regulations is 98.31 percent, which is nearly on par with the 2024 industry average of 98.9 percent.)<\/p>\n

OSHA has also documented multiple accidents and safety violations at Superior, including amputation of a thumb<\/a> in 2022. Adan Hernandez, who worked at Superior from 2006 to 2021, told Civil Eats that he was often forced to do multiple jobs when the line was short-staffed. \u201cSometimes I was ripping limbs off and also opening the throat of sheep,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are things that one has to pay attention to.\u201d With workers at slaughterhouses already cutting at speeds that experts call \u201cdangerously fast,\u201d doubling his tasks felt like asking for an accident.<\/p>\n

Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined<\/a> Superior $119,200 for violating chemical safety standards, for\u00a0ventilation, labeling, and ammonia detectors. Hernandez said ammonia leaks were common at the plant, as was clogged drainage that led to interior flooding. \u201cThe water would get up to the knees,\u201d he said. \u201cThe [animals\u2019] excrements were floating, blood, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superior acknowledges that \u201cjust like a home\u2013sometimes we have to deal with a clogged drain.\u201d They emphasize that they have a valid sewer permit, that chemical leaks did not expose workers to chemicals, and that they chose to participate in a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) with the EPA that surpasses required standards to prevent ammonia releases.<\/p>\n

Mariano also noted that Superior\u2019s employee-owners \u201ctake their own safety very seriously and take appropriate precautions against the various risks inherent to any kind of industrial work. They also ensure strong health benefits to provide care and treatment for employee-owners in the rare instances when workplace injuries occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

They note that OSHA has only recorded three accidents at Superior in the past decade\u2014but companies are not required<\/a> to report minor injuries to OSHA, meaning injuries treated with first aid, or that employees choose to seek treatment for on their own, could be missing from this record. When Hernandez got cut on the leg at work, he ended up paying for his own treatment; he said the clinic that Superior sent workers to was slow. He ended up with a hematoma and six stitches.<\/p>\n

What the Neighbors Want<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>

A metal scrapyard, a shuttered warehouse with cracked windows, and modular homes border Superior\u2019s facility in Denver. Typically, the meatpacking industry locates<\/a> its facilities in rural and low-income areas, entrenching their poverty and degrading their natural environments. Globeville, home to more than a dozen meatpacking plants<\/a> in the early 1900s, is now one of the country\u2019s most polluted zip codes<\/a>. Locals complain of noxious odors from the Purina plant and an oil refinery, car exhaust from two major highways, and the \u201ckilling smell\u201d that wafts from Superior.<\/p><\/div>

\n

Behind the facility snakes the South Platte River, where Superior discharges<\/a> its stormwater. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, Superior has violated the Clean Water Act since at least 2018 by failing to report monitoring of pollutants in its discharge. Available data<\/a> shows the facility exceeded benchmarks for solid effluents by almost 800 percent earlier this summer.<\/p>\n

Superior claims the solid effluent reading was erroneous, and that the Water Quality Control Division of the State of Colorado has awarded them a \u201cNo Exposure Certification,\u201d meaning their infrastructure is sound enough to prevent any accidental pollution of the South Platte River.<\/p>\n

Three out of four<\/a> slaughterhouses that discharge pollution directly into rivers and streams, meanwhile, are within one mile of low-income or BIPOC communities, according to the EPA. Air and water pollution from slaughterhouses can also contribute<\/a> to headaches, breathing difficulties, and nose, eye, and throat irritation\u2014all common complaints in Globeville, where locals are hospitalized for asthma-related conditions 63 percent more often<\/a> than the state average.<\/p>\n

Though one study<\/a> by the Common Sense Institute, a conservative think tank, predicts\u00a0Superior\u2019s closure would actually increase emissions from the construction of a new slaughterhouse and longer trucking routes, experts largely agree that transport accounts for a tiny proportion<\/a> of meat\u2019s emissions. They also point out that a new facility would likely be more efficient than a 70-year-old slaughterhouse, and therefore generate fewer emissions. Shutting down Superior, then, might not impact overall greenhouse gas emissions from industrial farming\u2014but it would likely improve air and water quality in Globeville.<\/p>\n

It might also lead to land in Globeville becoming more sought after. With its proximity to downtown and the hyper-gentrified<\/a> River North Arts District, luxury apartments have recently sprung up<\/a> in the area. Property taxes have also skyrocketed<\/a> in Globeville, threatening to displace long-time residents.<\/p>\n

Pro Animal Future points to Blueprint Denver, a land use plan that designates Superior\u2019s parcel as a mixed-use community center. If the ban passes, they claim the property could be converted to something more \u201ccommunity friendly,\u201d like a park or recreation center. But a city spokesperson said the owners will ultimately decide what redevelopment, if any, happens.<\/p>\n

Nola Miguel, at the Globeville Elyria Swansea Coalition, wants to see the land turned into affordable housing or another employer for her working-class neighbors. But she knows there\u2019s no guaranteeing that under the ballot initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s been fully vetted and processed, or that the community has even been asked about it, other than very few meetings,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is typical of how policy happens in GES. It\u2019s not formed with the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Future Without a Slaughterhouse<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>

In Greeley, 65 miles northeast of Denver, loom the industrial giants of Colorado factory farming: JBS, Cactus Hill Ranch, and Double J Lamb Feeders. Superior confirms that most of its lambs come from these \u201cfeeders,\u201d industrial operations that pack thousands of animals into outdoor pens. Such large-scale outfits make up the majority<\/a> of Colorado\u2019s sheep production.<\/p><\/div>

\n<\/div>
\"a<\/a>

A JBS Processing Plant in Greeley, Colorado. (Photo credit: Chet Strange\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re that big, when you\u2019re doing 20,000 sheep, you have access to capital,\u201d said Frerick. Meaning: The closure of a single slaughterhouse is unlikely to put these corporate giants out of business.<\/p>\n

Aaron Smith, the Gordon Rausser Distinguished Chair and Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at U.C. Berkeley, also doubts the sheep industry as a whole will suffer if the ban passes. Total lamb consumption in the U.S. is unlikely to change, he said, but processing might shift to other places. Recent history reinforces this: In 2020, Greeley\u2019s Mountain States Rosen plant, America\u2019s largest lamb processing facility at the time, went bankrupt. Despite a short-term disruption, new facilities in Brush, Colorado, and San Angelo, Texas, swiftly helped absorb<\/a> the demand.<\/p>\n

However, Nick Maneotis, a third-generation rancher in Craig, Colorado, worries that Superior\u2019s disappearance might spell the end of his family\u2019s mid-size operation. Maneotis, 53, and his father, 78, raise about 4,000 lambs a year, all of which end up at Superior either directly or through feeders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s really nowhere else to go with them,\u201d he said. \u201cColorado Lamb Processors in Brush only do whole carcasses, so that they don’t cut down to individual cuts to supply to restaurants.\u201d He suspects restaurants will replace Superior\u2019s cuts with imported meat from Australia and New Zealand, which already make up over 60 percent<\/a> of lamb consumed in the U.S.<\/p>\n

A recent Colorado State University study<\/a> tried to quantify these industry-wide impacts, predicting up to 2,700 job losses from ranching to animal feed to trucking. But other experts<\/a> criticize this study as overly pessimistic. Smith, for one, believes that Colorado\u2019s robust job market, with 1.5 openings per unemployed person<\/a>, can absorb most affected workers in the industry.<\/p>\n

The ballot initiative also stipulates that the city prioritize Superior\u2019s workers in \u201cworkforce training or employment assistance programs, including those provisioned by the Climate Protection Fund.\u201d In 2023, this fund supported training and placement in \u201cgreen jobs\u201d like solar installation, urban forestry, and facility and water quality management. But some Superior employees object<\/a> to outsiders dictating what jobs they should do.<\/p>\n

With a sigh, Reyes, still in her puffer jacket, said would consider a \u201cgreen job.\u201d \u201cIf there\u2019s no other option, then there\u2019s no other option,\u201d she said. For years, her life had been narrowed by circumstances outside her control. This would just be one more constriction.<\/p>\n

But she has a plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than anything, I want to build my house in Honduras,\u201d she said. In four years, Reyes hopes to have saved enough money to build a home next to her mom\u2019s house in El Rosario and open a little grocery store, a pulper\u00eda. She\u2019ll be not just an employee, but an owner\u2014this time, for sure.<\/p>\n

This article was updated to correct Aaron Smith’s title at UC Berkeley.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 5, 2024 Update: Denver voters rejected a slaughterhouse ban that would have shuttered Superior Farms. Then 46, Gutierrez had been working at Superior Farms for two years, skinning slaughtered lambs and cleaving off their noses, tongues, and hooves. She also restocked the facility\u2019s paper towels, soap, and aprons. On July 25, 2020, her hands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1364,"featured_media":58646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3256,10,132,1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[43542],"class_list":["post-58636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-welfare","category-food-justice","category-food-safety","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Fate of Denver\u2019s Last Slaughterhouse Is on the Ballot | Civil Eats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A November ballot measure will be the deciding factor between jobs, workers\u2019 rights, and animal welfare.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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