Maine Goat-Meat Industry Debates Production of Halal Meat

October 7, 2003

Source: Portland Press Herald

http://www.pressherald.com/business/stories/031007goatmeat.shtml

On October 7, 2003 Portland Press Herald discussed the challenges farmers, butchers, store owners and state officials face as they try to build a goat-meat industry in Maine to meet a growing market demand. No one has yet capitalized on the goat market due to the religious, cultural and agricultural complications involved. According to the Herald, a recent influx of immigrants, mostly Somalis living in Portland and Lewiston, eat goat as a staple of their diet, but import meat from outside of New England that is butchered to meet Islamic dietary standards. Maine slaughterhouses who hope to enter the goat industry will have to change their butchering methods as well, and store owners who hope to sell to Muslims must learn "to closely monitor whether there has been a mix of pigs and goats slaughtered at a processing plant, and other possible violations of Islamic law. "