APRIL 29 - MAY 6, 2026
THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE FOR GRAND JUNCTION BUSINESS & COMMUNITY NEWS SINCE 1994
Loss of local inspection capacity
VOLUME 33, ISSUE 18
THEBUSINESSTIMES.COM
Wired differently
Brandon Leuallen The Business Times
M
esa County no longer has a U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified meat processing facility, forcing local ranchers to transport livestock out of the area for federally inspected slaughter. The shift follows the loss of USDA inspection at Mountain Meats in Fruita, which had been the county’s only federally inspected processing facility. Federal records show inspection activity tied to the Fruita plant in recent years, but that inspection is no longer in place, removing the county’s ability to process meat for retail sale under federal standards. Without a USDA-inspected facility, producers who want to sell beef by the cut must have their animals processed elsewhere, requiring them to haul cattle out of the county and ship the meat back for sale. Rules for selling meat Under federal law, meat must be processed at a USDA-inspected facility to be sold commercially, including direct-to-consumer sales by the cut. That includes meat sold through grocery stores, butcher shops, restaurants, schools, farmers markets, online sales and other retail channels. See story Page 4
GJ’s Blazer Electric Supply is owned by a large corporation, but operates like independent, local company— See Page 2
Don Ligrani, manager of Blazer Electric Supply Company in Grand Junction, stands at the store’s front counter. Ligrani, a native of the Grand Valley, has nearly 50 years of experience at electrical distribution companies and worked in locations around the country before returning to the Grand Valley in the early 2000s. He’s watched small, independent electrical suppliers give way to large corporate owners, and while Blazer Electric Supply is owned by Graybar, a large corporation, Ligrani said Graybar lets its electrical distributors maintain their independent, localized way of operating. Photo by Tim Harty.
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