Redwood Meat Co. may reopen this summer in Myrtletown

The reopening of Redwood Meat Co. could determine whether Humboldt County ranchers, retailers and meat buyers still have to send livestock hours out of the county this summer. The Myrtletown plant at 3114 Moore Avenue was the county’s only USDA-certified slaughterhouse and meat-processing facility before it shut down in 2024, leaving local producers with a bottleneck that added distance, cost and uncertainty to every animal headed to market.

Arcata cattle rancher Ray Christie now says he plans to bring the plant back under his control, and local beef producers say that could happen within weeks or months. At a June 2 meeting of the North Coast Meat Processing Collaborative, Megan Kenney of the North Coast Growers’ Association said Christie attended part of the discussion and told attendees he hoped the facility would be running within a couple of months. Clint Victorine of Eel River Organic Beef said Christie suggested the timeline could be even faster. Christie also said he had retained many of the trained workers who had been part of the Nylander family’s operation and had bought new equipment for the plant.

The practical stakes are easy to measure. After the closure, ranchers were forced to haul animals at least 250 miles to other processors, according to local agricultural groups. Industry reporting identified the nearest USDA-certified slaughter facilities as being in Yreka County, about 199 miles away, and Sonoma County, about 236 miles away, with one-way trips of roughly 4.5 hours and 5.5 hours. The North Coast Growers’ Association says those added transport costs helped push local meat prices up by as much as $6 per pound.

But the question is not just whether Redwood Meat Co. can reopen. It is whether enough producers will use it. Christie’s name still carries heavy baggage in Humboldt County after a 2018 raid on his properties and a high-profile animal-cruelty case involving close to 300 dead cows. He has also filed civil-rights litigation against county officials over the raid and prosecution, and he has not been convicted. For some ranchers, that history may make the plant technically available but commercially unusable if they do not trust the owner enough to send animals there.

The company’s ownership history has also been tangled. Former majority owners Ryan Nylander and his uncle, John “Punk” Nylander, said rising operating costs made the business unsustainable. Later, minority shareholders Stephanie Nylander, Rachel Nylander Flores and Russel Nylander accused their father and cousin of fraud, embezzlement and document shredding. A Humboldt County Superior Court judge ruled that the sale of the company’s controlling interest to Christie did not violate a restraining order, clearing one legal hurdle but not the trust problem.

That is why the possible reopening matters beyond one business address in Myrtletown. Cal Poly Humboldt and other North Coast food-system groups have described regional processing as a critical infrastructure gap for food, fiber and farm resilience. If Redwood Meat Co. comes back and producers actually use it, Humboldt could regain a piece of agricultural infrastructure it has been missing since 2024. If they do not, the plant may reopen on paper without solving the county’s real processing shortage.