A public record for buying meat from people you can name

LocalMeat.org exists because the most important fact about a piece of meat, who raised the animal and where it was processed, is the hardest one to find. Retail labels rarely say. Farms that sell direct are scattered across county Facebook groups and processor bulletin boards. And the federal directory of inspected plants, the one document that ties every package to a place, is published as a spreadsheet most people never see.

We turned that record into something a household can use. Every USDA-inspected slaughter establishment in the country is listed here with its establishment number, county, phone, the species it handles, and whether it will process an animal you own. Every state has a page explaining what its inspection program and its laws allow. And the farms, ranches, and butchers that sell direct and ship nationally have profiles that record their sourcing and their prices.

What this site is

• An independent directory and publication, operated by Theory Road LLC, founded in 2026.
• A republication of public federal data (the FSIS Meat, Poultry and Egg Product Inspection Directory and its demographic supplement) with the establishment numbers intact so anyone can verify a record at the source.
• A set of guides written from the rules themselves: the Federal Meat Inspection Act, 9 CFR, FSIS labeling policy, state statutes, and university extension research.

What this site is not

• Not a government agency. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for the USDA, FSIS, APHIS, or any state department of agriculture.
• Not a certifier. A listing means a plant appears in the federal directory or a producer answered our sourcing questions. It is not an endorsement of the plant, the producer, or the meat.
• Not a seller. We do not sell meat, take orders, or handle payment. Links to producers go to the producer.

How the registry is funded

Some producer links are referral links that may pay this site a commission if you buy, at no cost to you. Processor records, state pages, and guides carry no paid placement of any kind, and no producer can pay to be listed, ranked, or described differently. Our disclosure spells this out.

How we work

• Built on the federal record. Our processor registry is drawn from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service establishment directory, the same list federal inspectors work from. Every plant carries its official establishment number so you can verify it yourself.
• Independent and plainly labeled. LocalMeat.org is privately operated and is not affiliated with the USDA or any state department of agriculture. Some producer links pay us a referral commission. Commissions never change a listing, a ranking, or a fact.
• Dated and sourced. Every registry page shows the date of the data it was built from. Every guide cites primary sources: the Federal Register, USDA agencies, state statutes, and university extension research.

The editorial standard is written down at how we verify. Corrections go to hello@localmeat.org and are noted on the page they affect.

Who writes this

Guides and registry pages are written and maintained by the LocalMeat.org Registry Desk, a small editorial team that reads the rule before writing the sentence. We do not publish bylines with personal names; the registry is the author of record, and the sources on every page are the credential.