LEWISTOWN — Slaughterhouses and butchers used to be scattered throughout the United States, numbering about 10,000 in 1967.

and about 85% of the American meatpacking industry is controlled by four companies: JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Smithfield. The other 15% of that market share is held in part by small and very small meat producers scattered across the country, including some in Montana.

have disappeared in the last 20 years, and a decades long University of Illinois study found the average length . Between inspections, startup costs and other factors, it’s not an easy business to get into or keep afloat. 

This is true for much of the agricultural industry, and many small businesses have disappeared as corporate America has exerted its will on farmers and ranchers. About 70% of the consumer’s dollar went to cattle producers in 1970, with the other 30% going to processors and retailers. Cattle producers now get about 30% of the consumer’s dollar, .

Additionally, about 98% of America’s beef . Beef processing co-ops have been created around the state in an effort to help give beef producers more options, but there’s another problem too — employees.

That’s the place some educators in Montana are looking to step in. Fergus High School in Lewistown, for example, has a robust agricultural education program. It’s also part of the Central Montana Career and Technology Education Academy, a public charter school to connect students with skills and knowledge needed to work in agriculture.

‘A dying art’

Logan Turner, one the teachers at Fergus High School, put it pointedly.

“Kids aren’t really getting into it,” he said. “Cutting meat is kind of a dying art.”

His goal has been, in part, to help change that trend. The technical academy seeks to bridge a gap of agricultural knowledge. Beyond meat cutting, classes at the school include farm business management, fabrication and science classes geared toward teaching about soil health among others.

Turner grew up on his family’s farm outside Missoula and quickly decided he wanted to be a teacher. There’s an urgency for him too, with worries, among them a feeling no one knows where their food comes from and the world’s growing population. 

“We’ve always been faced with this big issue as agriculturalists,” Turner said. “2050 is right around the corner, and there’s going to be two billion more people on the face of the planet, and how are we going to feed them all? I think it all starts with education and understanding … and so I felt like being an educator probably was the best way for me to contribute.”

Only about three percent of the food Montanans eat is produced in the state. There are options for eating local food, but they can sometimes be hard to find. 

Having kids learn about these could also help them enter the workforce with more ideas about what they want to do, which is one of the goals of the program. Orin Johnson, the Central Montana CTE Academy director, said they also want to get students as close as possible to certification in a variety of careers.

“Every kid doesn’t learn the same way,” Johnson said. “And some really do strive and need to be hands on, and it’s about finding a way to create opportunities that they can be hands on.”

Students at the school have shown interest and it’s included partnerships with Future Farmers of America and the Montana Farmers Union, which gave the meat processing program two grants totaling about $13,000 over the summer.

“We do a lot of meat processing at my house because my dad loves hunting, and so we do a lot of wild game,” said Shyanne Ricks, a student at the school who’s gone through the program. “And so doing the meats class really helps with seeing the whole process, not just wild game.”

Ricks, along with Tori Rindal, a freshman at the school, and the other Lewistown agricultural education teacher — Jared Long — went to and spoke about the program.

Rindal said she’s hoping to take the meats class next year. Long pointed out agricultural education is broad and students can take many different paths.

The program offers five pathways: welding, natural resource and conservation, meat processing, animal science and agricultural mechanics. There’s a variety of classes within those, both Long and Turner explained.

“The common misconception is that it’s just cows and plows,” Long said. “So that’s really our job, we feel like, is to open doors to kids that they might never have.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.

Indigenous students enrolled in schools run by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) will have access to more comprehensive, culturally relevant agricultural training and education as part of a new partnership the BIE established with the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF).

“This partnership furthers BIE’s commitment to provide a high-quality, culturally relevant education while empowering Native communities and paving the way for a brighter future in Indigenous agriculture,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland said

NAAF is a private, charitable trust created by the settlement of the class-action lawsuit Keepseagle v. Vilsack, NAAF provides grants to eligible organizations for business assistance, agricultural education, technical support, and advocacy services that support Indigenous farmers and ranchers.

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“Agricultural education is a fundamental focus for NAAF, offering a pathway for students, producers, and Native communities to engage in tribal agriculture, sustain food systems, bolster credit and lending opportunities, and support tribal economies,” Native American Agriculture Fund CEO Toni Stanger-McLaughlin said in a press release.

As part of this partnership, the educational resources will explore Native agricultural history as well as modern practices, according to the BIE. The lessons will focus on topics such as origins, leadership, and plant science within Indigenous communities.

“Increasing agricultural education through business and lending experiences, vocational education programs, youth initiatives and outdoor agricultural exposure helps to create increased interest and new opportunities for Native students to develop career pathways in agriculture and related fields,” Newland said.

As part of the partnership, students can participate in project-based learning, according to the BIE. Students will engage with traditional agriculture principles and practices, fostering an understanding of Indigenous agricultural systems.

“This collaborative lifelong agriculture education effort addresses a crucial gap in agricultural education,” Stanger-McLaughlin said. “It aims to empower Native students with education to preserve generational knowledge and sustain holistic agricultural ecosystems.”

The BIE and NAAF entered into a partnership in June and will launch educational resources at BIE-operated schools in Wingate, New Mexico, near the Navajo Nation and Zuni Pueblo.

NAAF’s sister organization, the Tribal Agriculture Fellowship program, will be leading the collaborative efforts with schools, according to the BIE, and they will be developing and tailoring resources to meet the needs of each school utilizing the educational resource.

“We are thrilled to embark on this journey with BIE schools,” Nicole De Von Jackson, director of the Tribal Agriculture Fellowship program, said in a press release.

“This partnership represents an incredible opportunity to create customized resources that truly reflect each community’s unique needs and strengths,” De Von Jackson added. “We are excited to see how this initiative will inspire and empower Native students to become the next generation of leaders in agriculture.”

The partnership will also support the , according to the BIE, which provides culturally based healthy nutrition education and boosts training for healthy and culturally appropriate food preparation.

“From our Food Hubs program to community growing efforts and new degree programs, BIE has increased agricultural education opportunities from early childhood to post-secondary,” Bureau of Indian Education Director Tony L. Dearman said in a press release.

were launched in 2022 by the BIE and the Department of Interior. Since its inception, it has been established in four BIE-operated schools.

The hubs use Indigenous knowledge to develop holistic approaches to support Native Food Sovereignty movements, according to the BIE, which incorporates culture, social determinants of health, food, nutrition, land management, and regenerative agriculture.

“This partnership will build upon those efforts and support Indigenous agriculture, furthering our commitment to including Indigenous knowledge in the BIE curriculum and providing career pathways in agriculture,” Dearman stated.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on and .