Axis deer were introduced to Hawaii in the 1860s and have since become an invasive species, with their populations growing to tens of thousands on some islands. This poses challenges as the deer destroy food supplies but are also an important food source. One company, Maui Nui Venison, works to humanely hunt the deer and process the meat for sale, but this requires significant investment and overhead due to USDA regulations. Mobile slaughter units help address this by allowing small farms to legally slaughter and sell local meat, though cut-and-wrap facilities are still needed for full USDA certification.

1. Anyone can follow a path, but only a leader can blaze one
John C. Maxwell
The Struggle to Contain, and Eat, the Invasive Deer Taking over Hawaii
Axis deer were first brought to the islands in the 1860s. Now they number in the tens of thousands
By Dan Nosowitz, Modern Farmer, May 24, 2021
<https://modernfarmer.com/2021/05/the-struggle-to-contain-and-eat-the-invasive-deer-taking-over-hawaii/>
The most important invasive species for a few islands, especially Maui and Molokai, is the
axis deer. On Molokai, an island of only around 7,000 people, there are somewhere around
70,000 axis deer. On Maui, there are around 50,000. The axis deer are a fascinating and multi-
dimensional inhabitant. They are simultaneously invasive and part of traditional culture; they
destroy food supplies and are an extremely important source of food themselves; they are
protected by law and despised by some parts of law enforcement; they are wildly destructive
to Hawaii and also, during the worst of COVID-19, were a beacon of hope.
“The process of harvesting a wild animal has crazy amounts of overhead that go into it,” says
Jake Muise [CEO & Founder, Maui Nui Venison]. It is legal to give hunted meat to anyone
you want, in the United States, but to sell it, it has to be inspected. Unlike some states, Hawaii
has no state meat inspection service, so Maui Nui has to go straight to the USDA. On every
single hunt, a USDA inspector must accompany Maui Nui's hunters and examine every single
wild axis deer for health before giving a thumbs up to the hunter to take a shot. And that
hunter can only take that one shot; the USDA regulations for humane commercial hunting
strictly require that the animal be rendered unconscious immediately, with a single shot to the
skull. This process is slow and liable to spook the deer, so it has to be done at night, when the
deer are more calm, which requires all kinds of equipment. Maui Nui's hunters use military-
grade infrared binoculars and, as of recently, a drone, to locate deer in the dark.
Until very recently, there were no USDA-approved butchers for deer in Maui, so Maui Nui
had to, at truly ridiculous expense, send whole deer carcasses via barge to processors on the
mainland, and then have the broken-down deer shipped back. It now has its own butcher, but
all of this—the equipment, the hunting training, the hourly fee for the USDA inspections, the
butchering facility—requires an insane level of investment. The idea of, say, selling axis deer
in Whole Foods? It’s not nearly as easy as going hunting.
____________________
WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE PLANET IS GOOD FOR US
Ku'ulani Muise, Brand Director & Founder, Maui Nui Venison
<https://mauinuivenison.com/pages/about-us>
We believe that striving to be in balance with nature supports abundance for all. By actively
managing Hawaii's Axis deer populations as a food resource, we hope to inspire more place-
based solutions that focus on the health of our environment, and by extension, the health of the
communities and systems that it sustains.
_____
Introduced in 1868 to the island of Moloka'i by King Kamehameha V, this unique species of
deer started out as a group of eight. Today, there are over 100,000.

2. While it might seem like a thriving deer presence in Hawai'i could be a good thing, these
population booms are occurring on islands with very finite resources.
Maui Nui reminds us that everything is connected. Properly managing the Axis deer
population does more than help balance Hawaii's ecosystems, it’s good for our agricultural
systems, for human health and the health of the deer themselves.
____________________
MAKANA PROVISIONS AN EXPLORATION IN SUSTAINABILITY
FEATURING HAWAII VENISON JERKY
<https://www.makanaprovisions.com/about>
Venison Jerky by Makana Provisions started with humble origins selling venison online and
out of the back of a pick up truck. We now distribute our venison exclusively through H&W
and Chef Zone through Y. Hata. We are proud to have trained and shared our story with 30
sales staff on their team. This has allowed us to grow and expand our sustainability efforts in
Hawaii. Our efforts began in 2008 with lobbying to get USDA FSIS ability to sell wild
harvested venison. It was not until 2012 that we began marketing venison. Makana Provisions
is owned and founded Chef Ignacio Fleishour.
Sustainability will be achieved when we as a community see the dependence of our well being
is directly tied to the well being of the health of our soils, roots and water.
____________________
AN INTRODUCTION TO MOBILE SLAUGHTER UNITS
By Denise Amann, Staff Officer, Food Safety and Inspection Service, February 21, 2017
<https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2010/08/30/introduction-mobile-slaughter-units>
In the United States the slaughter and processing of meat sold in the marketplace must take
place at a state or federally-inspected facility. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection
Service, or FSIS, is responsible for this important task. While these requirements are
important for protecting the public’s health, they can create challenges for farmers, ranchers,
and processors looking to do business.
For example, small livestock producers are finding it hard (and at times, cost prohibitive) to
transport their livestock the long distances necessary to the closest FSIS-inspected slaughter
facility. This is especially troubling to producers at a time when markets for locally grown
and specialty products are becoming more and more profitable. FSIS-inspected “mobile
slaughter units” provide a feasible option for small red meat and poultry producers wanting to
provide safe, wholesome product to local and interstate markets.
Mobile slaughter units have the potential to travel from farm to farm but often provide
services to regional producers at conveniently located “collection sites.” Capacities vary
depending on size of unit and species being slaughtered. Bruce Dunlop of the Island Grown
Farmers' Cooperative states that in a 25 foot unit, “one butcher can normally process 20-25
goats or sheep per day and two butchers can process around 10 cows per day.”

3. The first FSIS-inspected mobile slaughter unit was developed by the Lopez Community Land
Trust in 2002 with the Island Grown Farmers Cooperative for the community of Lopez Island,
located off the coast of Washington State. Prior to the unit’s arrival, farmers had to go off-
island to slaughter their animals and then transport the meat back to the island. Already small
profit margins were being consumed by increasing transportation costs. Dunlop’s mobile
slaughter unit was the most cost effective solution for Lopez Island. Now, local ranchers are
able to efficiently access their local markets. Currently, there are nine FSIS-inspected mobile
slaughter units in the United States. An FSIS-inspected mobile slaughter unit must comply
with the same regulations as a fixed slaughter facility, and the FSIS inspector assigned to the
unit verifies the slaughter process in the same way that he or she would in a permanent
facility.
___________
Additional Reference Supplied
<http://www.lopezclt.org/affordable-housing/>
Have Knife, Will Travel
A Slaughterhouse on Wheels 'Custom Butcher' Gives Small Farms New Option to Sell Local Produce
By Lauren Etter, The Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2008
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122054916174600403>
To have his hogs butchered legally, farmer Bruce Dunlop could haul his animals by ferry and
truck 150 miles to the nearest federally sanctioned slaughterhouse.
Instead, he just calls on his friendly roving neighborhood slaughterhouse. Up rolls a diesel
truck pulling an 8-by-12-foot trailer fitted with a sink, a 300-gallon water tank and a cooling
locker with carcass hooks. A butcher in a floor-length apron kills, skins, guts and trims the
pigs into slabs of meat that are then hung in the cooler and trundled to a packaging plant.
Soon the meat is stocked in the freezers of shops on the island and across Washington state
and Oregon.
It's not exactly meals on wheels. But Lopez Island's mobile slaughterhouse -- the first to be
sanctioned by the U.S. Agriculture Department -- now shuttles from farm to farm three or four
days a week, collecting fresh carcasses of cows, pigs and sheep that will become steaks,
sausage, bacon and hamburgers. Without the rolling abattoir, says Mr. Dunlop, 53 years old,
"we'd be pretty much out of luck."
Federal rules and consolidation of the nation's meatpacking industry have made it increasingly
costly and cumbersome for small farmers to bring their animals to slaughter. According to the
rules, animals intended to be sold as meat must be killed at a slaughterhouse with a federal
inspector present. (Some states allow state inspectors to do the job.)
The cooperative hired two butchers, and the Agriculture Department assigned an inspector
who would follow the slaughterhouse around. To pay for butchers and other expenses, the
cooperative charges a fee for each animal killed: $105 for a cow, $53 for a pig, $37 for a
sheep.

4. In the 2020 State of the State address Governor David Ige reminded us that
CHANGE DOESN'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT, AND OF THE IMPORTANCE OF
VISION TO SEE THINGS NOT AS THEY ARE, BUT AS THEY COULD BE
We Need A Better Vision For Food Sustainability
By Hunter Heaivilin, Honolulu Civil Beat, January 30, 2020
<https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/01/we-need-a-better-vision-for-food-sustainability/>
_____________
RESTORING HAWAII'S ECONOMY & SUSTAINABLE FOOD PRODUCTION
Action Item for Governor Ige and theHawaiiState Legislature
Local pig, sheep and goat farmers can no longer use the island's only full-service
slaughterhouse, which prevents them from selling specialty meats and has prompted some
businesses to import substitute cuts from the mainland.
For decades, farmers paid Kulana Foods Ltd. to slaughter their small animals at a Hilo facility
that also offered USDA-certified processing, known as CUT AND WRAP, THATS NEEDED
TO PRODUCE PACKAGED MEATS APPROVED FOR SALE TO STORES AND
RESTAURANTS. In December, Kulana announced that it had suspended the slaughtering and
processing of small animals indefinitely, choosing instead to focus on the more-profitable
cattle side of its operation.
Hawaii Island's only other small animal slaughterhouse is a MOBILE UNIT that's too limited
and inconvenient to fill the gap created by Kulana's pullback. IT LACKS CUT-AND-WRAP
CAPABILITY, PREVENTING FARMERS FROM RECEIVING USDA-CERTIFIED CUTS
APPROVED FOR RESALE.
The MOBILE UNIT ACTUALLY IS STATIONARY and located in Kealakekua, which is on
the opposite side of the island – a distance of up to 100 miles – from where most pigs, sheep
and goats are raised. Also, it's only open one day every two to four weeks, said Mike Amado,
president of the HAWAII ISLAND MEAT COOPERATIVE, WHICH OPERATES THE
MOBILE SLAUGHTERHOUSE. A multiyear effort has lined up grants to cover the
estimated $300,000 cost of adding a cut-and-wrap facility, but finding a suitable publicly
owned site to house it has been “an extremely long, painful process” that has not been
completed, Amado said.