New England has great livestock farmers. What's been missing is the market.
Five Pillars Butchery is building the halal processing and distribution infrastructure that connects local farms to the markets they've never had access to.
If you're raising livestock in Maine or New England, you already know the challenge: there's strong demand for locally raised meat, but the processing and distribution infrastructure to reach new markets is limited — especially for halal markets, where demand is growing fast and supply is almost entirely coming from outside the region.
Five Pillars is changing that. We're building a USDA-inspected halal processing facility and a regional supply network designed to give local livestock producers a pathway to halal markets, institutional buyers, and cooperative distribution they couldn't access before.
What working with Five Pillars means for your farm.
Halal processing access
Our USDA-inspected halal slaughter and processing facility in Unity, Maine, gives regional livestock producers access to authentic halal processing without the cost and logistics of building that infrastructure themselves. We process beef cattle, lamb, and goat, with the documentation that institutional and wholesale halal buyers require.
Access to growing halal markets
Halal is one of the fastest-growing protein segments in the United States — and in New England, local halal supply is dramatically underbuilt relative to demand. Muslim consumer demand is growing. Institutional demand from schools, hospitals, and universities is growing. Five Pillars is positioned to connect your operation to both.
Institutional buyer relationships
We're building direct supply relationships with schools, hospitals, universities, and food service programs across New England. Producers who partner with Five Pillars gain access to these institutional contracts — consistent, predictable volume that retail channels can't offer.
Cooperative supply chain participation
Five Pillars is working to establish a regional livestock producer cooperative — a shared infrastructure model that allows farms to participate in a regional halal supply network, share access to processing, and benefit from collective market relationships. Early-stage producers who join now help shape how the cooperative is built.
Regional brand partnership
Partner farms have the opportunity to be featured as named producers on our website, in our marketing, and in our institutional materials — building a traceable, storytellable supply chain that adds value to your operation and to the food system we're building together.
White-label and private label opportunities
For farms interested in developing their own branded halal product lines, Five Pillars offers white-label and private-label processing and packaging. Contact us to explore what this could look like for your operation.
Who we're looking to partner with.
We're looking for livestock producers in Maine and New England who share our commitment to humane raising practices and are interested in accessing halal markets. You don't need to know anything about halal processing going in — we'll walk you through everything. What we're looking for:
Beef cattle, lamb, or goat producers — any scale considered
Pasture-based or humane raising practices — this matters for tayyib compliance and for our brand
Interest in consistent, contract-oriented supply relationships rather than spot market
Willingness to participate in a regional supply network and cooperative model
Maine or New England based — regional sourcing is core to what we're building
How the partnership works.
We keep the process simple. Here's what working with Five Pillars looks like from the farm's perspective:
Reach out — tell us about your operation, your species, your scale, and what you're looking for.
We'll talk through fit — processing needs, halal compliance requirements, and how your operation connects to the markets we're building.
We establish a supply agreement — volume, scheduling, pricing, and documentation expectations.
Your animals come to our facility — we handle halal slaughter, processing, and packaging to institutional or retail specifications.
Product moves into our distribution network — to institutional buyers, retail customers, or your own branded channel.
