A company that’s pushing to build a new pork processing plant in Sioux Falls celebrated the opening of a contentious butcher shop Tuesday ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Wholestone Farms wants to be operational before the votes are cast in a Sioux Falls referendum that could ban new slaughterhouses.

The butcher shop would serve as a toehold for a larger $500 million facility with the capacity to process up to six million hogs. That might seem like a tall order for a group comprised of Midwestern farmers. But Wholestone Farms is an offshoot to a larger organization that revolutionized hog farming, an expertise it has taken around the world.

Pipestone Holdings, which helped start Wholestone, is an owner in RiverStone, a company that also includes a Minneapolis-based private equity firm. Luke Minion, a veterinarian who is CEO of Pipestone Holdings, is chairman of the board of RiverStone, Pipestone’s operation in China.

Minion is also chairman of the board of Wholestone Farms.

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