Meatingplace, the top magazine and news source for the meat and poultry processing industry, just released their October issue and it features Nicholas Meat. In fact, we are honored to share Nicholas Meat is the cover story flanked with the headline, “Solid Ground.” The magazine reaches more than 41,000 subscribers in print and online in the meat and poultry industry.

Tom Johnston, Meatingplace editor, traveled to Loganton in August to tour the plant, meet with the Nicholas Meat leadership team and to learn about the Sustainable Resource Facility (SRF). Johnston, born and raised in Chicago, Ill., attended Penn State University on a soccer scholarship and graduated with a journalism degree. He’s been at Meatingplace for 15 years.

Johnston jumped at the chance to learn more about Nicholas Meat and return to Pennsylvania.

“With all the beautiful surroundings, I was reminded of why I chose to go to school there over others that would have been closer to home,” said Johnston. “Central PA will always have a special place in my heart, and I’m grateful that my education and profession combined to bring me back for this feature.”

The comprehensive article discusses the history of Nicholas Meat including all the developments since a 2005 fire destroyed the company’s plant.  

The article states – “To be sure, Nicholas Meat is in an accelerated era of regeneration — and modernization — that began with tragedy. Back in 2005, a fire burned the company’s original plant to the ground. Put it this way, says Doug Nicholas, vice president and chief operating officer of Nicholas Meat, “There’s absolutely nothing left from any piece of the plant that was here during the fire.”

The Meatingplace story on Nicholas Meat extensively covers the planning and construction of the SRF which Brian Miller, Nicholas Meat director of sustainability, explained was born out of necessity as well as a responsibility.

“We need to learn to be sustainable on the property that we actually have,” said Miller in the article. “We can’t call up that water company and say, ‘We need more water.’ Same with wastewater; there’s no municipal wastewater facility here in our area, so we have to find sustainable ways to manage that waste and to reduce the amount that we have to haul off site. We’ll never be able to recycle 100%, but the goal is to recover as much of those materials as we can and repurpose it for a beneficial use.”

As we explained to Johnston, Nicholas Meat is in a really unique setting here in Central Pennsylvania and we are fully aware of the need to manage natural resources, the needs of the community and the vitality of our business long-term. That has always been the motivation behind the extensive planning and development of the SRF. That planning serves as solid ground now that site-work and construction of this state-of-the-art facility is visibly underway.

While work continues at the site of the SRF, Miller said it is humbling to see the widespread interest others have in the facility we are building. This first-of-its-kind facility for the U.S. meat processing industry features award-winning waste-to-energy and water reuse technology. Nicholas Meat plans to achieve up to 90% wastewater recovery once the SRF is completed.

“We’ll be the first beef plant in the lower 48 doing that,” Elliott Keller, general manager explained in the article, noting that a Canadian plant (Harmony Beef in Rocky View County, Alberta) was the first in North America to recycle and reuse its water to such an extent.”

The article goes on to share …

“Back on the packing plant side of the road, meanwhile, Doug Nicholas is kicking up dust, too. As hard-hatted construction workers hurry in and out of the plant’s latest additions, he is walking on a yet empty plot of gravel and talking out his vision for a new cattle holding area that will feature rubber flooring to better cushion their tired hooves as they await slaughter.

Doug, an Army veteran who joined the family business in 2003 and has held every management position since then, is always drawing up the next plan.”

Read the entire article here at Meatingplace.