Ecosystem Services & Pastured Meat Markets

Introducing a grazing period on cropland is the fastest way to restore biodiversity in plants and soils, to control herbicide-resistant weeds, and to restore wildlife habitat in agricultural lands.

It’s not for every farmer, but for those looking to introduce livestock onto croplands, this novel strategy has been de-risked by the On Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) in Canada. Administered as the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program in parts of western Canada, local authorities review applications and reimburse costs to create grazing plans, install fences, watering systems, and pasture stands. This will lead to more livestock being raised outside on pastures for environmental reasons.

In economic terms, the government program represents a financial incentive for landowners to make management decisions that have value to society. It can also create a new market for pasture-raised meat with a positive externality in the price.

There is a great saying in the regenerative movement that perfectly captures the essence of rotational grazing as a solution to climate change. ‘It’s not the cow, it’s the how’ -- referring to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in cattle and dairy being a consequence of confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s).

Thanks to thought leaders like Joel Salatin, Will Harris, and Finian Makepeace, media platforms from Hollywood to Joe Rogan are showcasing the environmental and health benefits of well-managed grazing systems now. In the U.S., new meat businesses are capitalizing on it (for example, Force of Nature, White Oak Farms, Niman Ranch) and existing textiles businesses are piling in (for example, UGG, Timberland, Patagonia).

There aren’t really any similar value chains in Canada yet. The trick to getting started marketing pastured meat with ecological services is a familiar one: connecting the dots within the supply chain so that the farmers and consumers can find one another and make the transactions that they’re looking for. In this case of animal protein, these supply chain challenges are exacerbated by a sticky set of regulations.

The Supply Chain for Local Meat …grab a coffee folks, this gets dull fast

The province of Manitoba, Canada is used here as the setting to describe the landscape facing new farmer direct marketers of meat, but across North America, inter-provincial and state regulations governing the handling of meat and livestock are often similar. However, they are the not the same, because both agriculture and health are shared federal-provincial jurisdictions. There is both consistency and autonomy between regions.

For example, in Saskatchewan, eggs can be sold directly to consumers at farmers markets, without any provincial inspection or processing. In neighboring Manitoba, this is not allowed, and it is policed. Health inspectors monitor and shut down vendors and farmers markets if there are found to be uninspected eggs for sale.

The same is true for meat that originates from an uninspected kill. The slaughter in commercial meat animals is required to be supervised by a provincial employee of the agriculture department as animals are brought in trailers by farmers and commercial truckers to the harvesting area. This is where all parts are removed except for the meat and bones. Once the animal is hanging on the hook in halves or quarters, it’s stamped by the inspector and then considered food, and the oversight of its handling passes from agriculture to health.

Where health departments prohibit the commercial sale of meat that did not originate from an inspected kill, there can arise a black market. This is because of the growing demand for pasture-slaughtered meat, from immigrant communities and others, and limited local processing options.

There is a segment of meat eaters everywhere who feel that the most humane way to harvest livestock is on the farm, avoiding the trauma and danger of live transport. But it’s tricky to get meat inspectors out to a farm, and rare to have all the processing equipment, water and waste management systems in place to get the meat stamped. If hanging meat isn’t stamped, it’s illegal to sell it.

Some farmers are harvesting livestock in pasture and selling uninspected meat to a customer base, but the majority of farmer direct marketers follow the rules - even they disagree with them - because it’s simply a part of doing good business. They haul their animals to a provincially-inspected abattoir, arrange for the inspected hanging meat to be transported to a butcher, pay the fees, take back the cut and wrapped packs, and deliver orders to their customers.

Complicated, Right?

Yet more and more farmers and businesses are doing it. Part of it is the extreme demands on agriculture to change, and the powerful ecological benefits behind pasture-raised meat. But what makes it especially worthwhile, from the farmer-who’s-stuck-with-all-the-extra-work perspective, is the sense of pride and positivity that they gain in connecting directly with customers. They get a chance to tell their story to someone that it matters to. They build relationships, trust, farm and food security.

Not so long ago, buying directly from farms used to be about price – getting eggs cheaper than at the grocery store, for example. Then it became all about the experience of going to a farmers market. Now there are real commercial infrastructure opportunities in processing and branding.

In closing, it needs to be said that none of this discounts the importance of commodity supply chain efficiencies in the world. Rather, this ‘third way’ that is emerging in meat and textile markets is just a sizable example of how both farmers and consumer-facing brands can create new systems to satisfy the changing preferences of their customers and society.