DENVER — Some local Denver chefs are now among the advocates opposing the ballot initiative that would prohibit slaughterhouses inside the city limits by 2026.

Chef Jose Avila of La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal and Chef Andrea Frizzi of Il Posto will be opposing the issue with other Colorado agriculture members, such as Isabel Bautista, operations manager and employee owner of Superior Farms; Paul Andrews, president and chief executive officer of the National Western Stock Show and Complex; and Kenny Rogers, president of the Colorado Livestock Association.

The measure, which will be on the ballot in November, states that Denver prohibits “the construction, maintenance or use of slaughterhouses within the city and requiring the city to prioritize residents whose employment is affected by the ordinance in workforce training or employment assistance programs.” 

Even though the initiative targets livestock of all kinds, currently, it affects one business: Superior Farms’ lamb processing plant.

The opposition group named “Stop the Ban, Protect Jobs” has explained that the slaughterhouse ban unfairly targets a 70-year-old employee-owned business. If the plant was shut down, the group said 160 workers at the Denver plant would lose their positions and benefits.

“Singling out just one business and forcing it to shut down with a ballot measure is unfair and wrong,” the group said.

The Stop the Ban, Protect Jobs group also said that if the plant was closed, there would be an additional cost of shipping in meat from out of state, which passes on increased food prices to consumers. Denverites would continue to eat meat even if the local production is banned, which would mean shipping more food supply from further away, the group explained.

In an interview earlier this year with MEAT+POULTRY, Superior Farms CEO Rick Stott said that in an initial poll of local residents, 70% of the people from Denver did not even know that Superior Farms existed within the city limits.

“That’s a big part of what we discovered is we need to communicate who we are,” Stott said during the Annual Meat Conference.

A recent study in May by Colorado State University laid out how the ban could reduce Colorado economic activity by $861 million and affect more than 2,700 jobs.

The study cited recent figures from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service that Colorado has 21 USDA-inspected sheep and lamb slaughter plants operating in the state, with a capacity of 400,000 lambs. Of the federally inspected facilities, only two (Superior Farms and Colorado Lamb Processors) have a capacity greater than 100,000 lambs per year. 

The Colorado State study pointed out that the Superior Farms plant in Denver accounts for 15-20% of the total lamb harvesting in the United States.

According to the Denver election website, the group in favor of the slaughterhouse ban, named Pro-Animal Denver, has raised almost $228,000 during its campaign. The “Stop the Ban, Protect Jobs” raised nearly $740,000 and received contributions from Superior Farms, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Colorado Livestock Association and the United Food & Commercial Workers International.