Homegrown Poultry

After our biodiesel production facility tour we had an impromptu local poultry processing tour. HomeGrown Poultry prides itself on being the first state-approved poultry and rabbit processor in the state of Idaho, and one of three in the northwest. Janie Burns and Jack Kleeb co-own the business. They started up Homegrown Poultry because they are advocates of organic, sustainable, humane animal raising, and realized that the meat that Idahoans demanded had to be processed somewhere. If they didn't start up the local processing facility the likelihood of the mistreatment of these well raised birds was pretty high. Most of their fowl processed comes from 20-30 miles away. They reserve the right to turn away prospective customers if they are kicking around their birds, but have only had to do that twice in 6 years. They compost all of the waste products, (blood, feathers, innards), on Janie's farm, the Meadow Lark Farm.
When redesigning their building they took into consideration all of the green features they could integrate. This included passive solar, swamp cooling and R44 insulation.
Janie left us on a good note with regards to all types of sustainable systems and projects stating, "We are all cogs, and we interface where the gears are. We can't do it by ourselves, and that is why your [networking] work is so important".