(BIVN) – A new butchery course is being launched at Hawai’i Community College’s Kō Education Center in Honokaʻa.

The new, six-week, non-credit butchery course will start in the Spring of 2025, and is made possible through a four-year, $950,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

Hawaiʻi Community College says the training is part of the UH Meat & Poultry  Workforce Consortium, in collaboration with UH-Hilo and the College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources at UH-Mānoa. 

From the HCC news release:

The course, the first of its kind at Hawai’i Community College, offers students comprehensive, hands-on training in butchery, including humane slaughter methods, carcass breakdown, and meat processing. The curriculum also covers food safety standards, proper meat labeling, and animal husbandry, to prepare students for employment in Hawai’i’s butchery industry.

Bill Wong, co-founder and owner of 17 Ranch in Kohala, and the course instructor, emphasized its significance for Hawai’i. “We are pioneering the kind of butchery that’s needed today,” he says. “This course is a small piece but it comes at a time when we are concerned about the future of our planet and our food sources. What students will learn in six weeks would normally take a year to learn in the workforce.”

Butchery course co-instructors Wade Cypriano (left) and Bill Wong (right) courtesy Hawai‘i Community College

Wong, who attended the National School of Meat Cutting, noted the similarities between his own education and the course he will bring to Kō Education Center. “I knew we needed this in Hawaii,” he says. “The Big Island is the largest producer of beef cattle in the state. It’s necessary to revive this part of the industry. We are building a workforce.”

Hawai’i Community College will publicly announce the butchery course during the 2024 Hāmākua Sugar Days Festival, taking place from October 5 to 20. The festival, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the closure of the last local sugar plantation, honors Hāmākua’s agricultural past while showcasing new initiatives like the butchery course. An information booth will be set up on October 12 during the festival’s parade day, where Wong, alongside other Hawaii CC programs, including agriculture and culinary, will share details about the cutting-edge course.

Nicole Garcia, executive director of the Honoka’a Heritage Center and coordinator of the Hāmākua Sugar Days Festival, says it’s crucial for small, rural communities to have access to post-secondary education, technical training and certificate courses to provide opportunities for everyone in the community. “I think our community will greatly benefit from the butchery program,” she says. “It aligns perfectly with the needs of our area, where ranching is such a big part of life. I’m particularly excited to see this program fill a critical gap, offering valuable professional development close to home.” 

The grant that supports this butchery program is part of a larger effort to improve pathways for Native Hawaiian and underserved students in agriculture-related fields. Key objectives of the UH Meat & Poultry Workforce Consortium include improving animal science transfer pathways from community colleges to four-year institutions, developing a skilled labor force for meat and poultry production, fostering a sense of belonging for underserved students, and enhancing industry connections.

Hawaii Community College Chancellor Susan Kazama notes, “We are excited to be able to offer this new course and others at Kō Education Center. The USDA grant aims to improve opportunities for Native Hawaiian and underserved students in agriculture-related fields and fits perfectly with our college’s mission to train students for jobs on our island.”

The new butchery program is also about promoting food security in the islands. As Wong explains, “We need to take a step back. Butchery is a lost art. There’s better utilization and less waste when processing whole animals locally, which helps sustain and grow our food supply, just as Native Hawaiians did long ago, without relying on maritime shipping. This can be a really exciting step in terms of our sustainability footprint.”