Friesen Foods wants to build slaughterhouse near Great Falls

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – A Canadian company wants to build what would be Montana’s largest slaughterhouse and meat processing plant on the outskirts of Great Falls.

Alberta-based Friesen Foods has filed a special use permit application with Cascade County for the proposed Madison Food Park, which could employ up to 3,000 people. The company says the plant would be used for cattle, pig and chickens. The Great Falls Tribune reports the complex would also process milk and include a distillery.

It would use about 3.5 million gallons of water a day. The company says that most of the animal waste created would be turned into methane gas to power turbines.

The public along with a number of federal agencies must weigh in on the proposal before a decision is made on the permit.