Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to the Taproot Project, where we share stories of changemakers in Midwestern agriculture. Today, we are talking about the power of meat, specifically organic meat.
Speaker: The demand for organic meat is increasing, especially among Gen Z and millennials. So what does it look like to actually meet this demand? In this episode, I'll be introducing two people in the organic meat industry to give us a closer look at the policies, infrastructure, and culture affecting organic meat production.
Speaker: My name is Kate. Thanks for being here. The key thing
Speaker: ah key thing is that, you know from my standpoint, is that you have a ah number of ranchers out there that say, gosh, um you know, I'd really like to produce organically, but where am I going to sell the product?
Speaker: Dave Carter is the Regional Technical Assistance Director at Flower Hill Institute, a native-run nonprofit focusing on economic self-sufficiency and food sovereignty. Dave has also served on the NOSB, or National Organic Standards Board, which you've heard about in other episodes.
Speaker: Dave Carter, you've got a lot of consumers that are saying, I really want to buy or met organic meat and poultry. um But where can I get it that it's not imported from Uruguay Australia?
Speaker: And the Achilles' Hill is that processing side, is we need more certified organic processors to be able to connect those ranchers who want to raise their animals organically and the consumers who want to buy USA-raised organic products.
Speaker: Flower Hill Institute is the program coordinator for a federal project called the Meat and Poultry Processing Technical Assistance Program, or MPPTA. It's a mouthful, so I'll say it again.
Speaker: The Meat and Poultry Processing Technical Assistance Program, MPPTA. MPPTA supports producers and processors in the meat and poultry supply chain with things like business development and financial planning, among other things.
Speaker: The program is specifically focused on small and niche meat businesses. It was then 2022 that the previous administration made this significant commitment to trying to help smaller meat and poultry processors that then USDA pulled together a group of organizations to provide technical assistance.
Speaker: um And since March of 2022, we've received more than 1,600 requests for technical assistance all the way from Virgin Islands to Guam. so it's And so just to clarify, the MPPTA program was designed specifically for small meat and poultry processors? smaller meat and poultry processors, yeah. when they When they pulled it together, I like to say the One of the few instructions that we got from USDA at the time was, don't bother to return a phone call from the Big Four. um You're there to help everybody else.
Speaker: The Big Four refers to the four corporations who together control over 80% of the U.S. beef market. Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef.
Speaker: In addition to prioritizing smaller processors, the MPPTA program emphasizes support for minority-owned businesses. The little bit that I've looked into the MPPTA program, it really seems to have a focus on serving um underserved groups and helping rural minority tribal owned establish meat processing facilities. um What's the motivation there? Like what impact would more meat processing power have on those communities?
Speaker: Well, you you take a look and I mean, just tribal communities, you know, for example, are are just a, um, either a shining or a glaring example, but you know they keep talking about these tribal nations or food deserts.
Speaker: and And the reality is, no, they're not a food desert. They're they're producing plenty of food. But the traditional model, ah you know not only for livestock, but I'll focus in on livestock, is you have the ranchers out there that are raising the the animals— And then they wean the calves and they take them to a sale barn and they sell them and those calves go off who knows where to be finished and processed into meat.
Speaker: And then the next day, ah you know, a truck pulls in with USDA commodity beef for their food distribution program that's been processed who knows where and from animals that were grown who knows where. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And so, you know, so much of the focus among the tribal nations is let's put together, let's develop the infrastructure here so that we can process our own um animals and our own grains, our own whatever, but our own animals first and foremost to feed our people.
Speaker: Since the pandemic, five tribes invested in processing plants across Oklahoma, the state with both the second largest indigenous population and the second largest beef cattle industry.
Speaker: The pandemic saw a lot of momentum in local meat processing plants across the country. And Dave is trying to steer some of this exciting momentum towards organic processing. Dave Kempner, know, when we came on board, one of the, I had some communication from the National Organic Program.
Speaker: at the time saying, well, you know, be great if we could make sure as as you're out there doing some work, we're letting people know about becoming organic certified, which I said, absolutely.
Speaker: It's an uphill climb. In many ways, the conversation and regulations around organic meat are decades behind the organic produce and dairy industries. Dave shared some of the history and current criteria for becoming an organic certified meat processor.
Speaker: has a conversation about organic been in the meat industry as long as it's been in in vegetable and produce, or is it a new, goal it's a newer conversation? Well, up until 1999, you weren't even allowed to label meat as organic.
Speaker: Okay. um You had, you know, prior to the national organic standards, you could label, vegetables or packaged goods as organic and they could be certified by Oregon tilth or CCOF or, you know, whatever.
Speaker: But USDA would not allow meat to be labeled as organic prior to 1999. And when the organic standards came along, um when it came to livestock, when It was primarily the poultry producers and the dairy farmers that were at the table to develop the standards. And that's why the organic standards that came in place and
Speaker: ah in 2002 are heavily skewed toward favoring you know dairy production and not red meat production. um And why why was it that the USDA wouldn't allow, like, why couldn't any of these more state or regional certifiers certify meat up until 1999?
Speaker: That was just because Food Safety and Inspection Service that handles meat inspection okay ah objected because they thought that, you know, organic was a food safety label.
Speaker: got And there was implying that You know, that organic was safer than than conventional. And so FSIS, you know, raised, got in a snit and over that. What does it mean to be a certified organic processor? What's different between that facility and a non-certified organic facility?
Speaker: Well, and that's the the key thing is there's so much misconception about what's involved. And, you know, when when or meat processors hear that you've got to have segregation, you've got to segregate the organic products from your conventional products.
Speaker: Well, first of all, some of them think that if I get organic certified, I can only process organic products. And the reality is throughout the food marketplace, 95% of the products that are in retail ah today ah that are certified organic are processed in facilities that also process conventional.
Speaker: um And that includes dairy, it includes canned goods, dry goods, you know, anything. um And so, you know, it's it's simple. you You can process both. So then they hear, well, I've got to segregate that organic products, and I don't want to have to build a whole separate cooler to store it.
Speaker: Well, again, no you know Just to explain to them, you can store those products in the same cooler. You just to have to have different labeling. you know You're shelving, you just the way you store the products to keep them separate there and that. So that's a no-brainer.
Speaker: And then some of them think, well, if i've got to if I go certified organic, I've got to have organic pest control procedures. Well, if you're a processor in a larger area, you're probably using a commercial pest control company, and and all you do is call them up and say, I'm going to be organic certified, and they change those protocols.
Speaker: if you If you're out into an area, you know Pelican Falls, yeah, Minnesota, you know, the the owner of the plant is probably also handling the pest control.
Speaker: ah And they're thinking, oh my God, if I go to organic pest control, I'm going to have cockroaches and rats running rampant. So, you know part of what I've been trying to to preach to to folks is it is not that difficult to become more organic certified.
Speaker: The second thing that is is critical is that the survivability of smaller plants and this was documented in ah in a research study that was done by a professor at the University of Illinois about three years ago. You know, she she looked at factors affecting the survival of smaller processing plants, and key number one that she had was your ability to differentiate your products from the commodity marketplace.
Speaker: And I've been telling people that for years, that if you're if you're a smaller meat processor and all you're doing is focusing on producing a one-pound brick of generic ground beef to go into Kroger and sit on the shelf next to their store brand one-pound brick of ground beef, guess who's gonna win that competition every single time So what are you doing different? You know, bison, grass-fed, regenerative. Oh, it organic. Yeah.
Speaker: And so so do you say the goal of the MPPTA program is more small meat processing plants? Is it the ones that just live? It's more. you want more of them.
Speaker: well we Well, we wanted more. i mean, a beginning, coming out of COVID, you you saw the need for more slaughter plants out there. um Now, we've had this historic shift in the cattle inventory, and I'm focused primarily on beef, although we handle everything.
Speaker: But when you take a look, the inventory of of beef animals out there on the land is at the lowest level it's been in 80 Wow. um and so you know, primarily because of drought, but other, you know, feed and fertilizer costs, et cetera, and so on.
Speaker: But so coming out of COVID, you had ranchers waiting for a year and a half to find um ah slot at a slaughter plant to to process their animals.
Speaker: Now we have slaughter plants that are saying, um I need more animals to to fill my throughput. So, you know, at the beginning, we were focused on helping new processing plants break ground and and get started.
Speaker: Now we're spending more of our time um with existing processors and focusing on what are you doing that's going to make you different.
Speaker: In the aftermath of this pandemic boom and bust cycle is where we meet Jessica Rusa, the owner of This Old Farm Incorporated. We're in the middle of doubling our capacity. And we came to this project during the pandemic when processing was hard to come by and farmers were having to to to to think about processing a year in advance or before livestock was even born. and And yes, that was a hard time. And so we decided that we would go ahead and start on a growth project. And five years later, we've been working on it every day since then. and we're nearing completion on our expansion. Meanwhile, the beef market has turned upside down.
Speaker: And so and so so we are looking for customers of all types. This Old Farm Incorporated is located in central Indiana.
Speaker: It's a three part business. Jessica and her family raise lambs, operate a butcher shop, and own a certified organic meat processing facility. The meat processing facility is called Toffee Packing, which is short for This Old Farm Inc.
Speaker: Anybody can process with us. We draw from all surrounding states around Indiana. So and we draw from Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin.
Speaker: um livestock coming into our facility. And then most of the time it's going back to the customer being the farmer. Now about 10, 25% of the time we take ownership and sell that through our own outlets.
Speaker: At the beginning of her farming career, Jessica did not set out to operate a meat processing facility. because sometimes a hobby goes crazy. um But really it's when you when you have ah a mission approach, you have a calling as I call it, um it snowballs. So I started as a first generation farmer 25 years ago, purchased a farm and got started ah first trying to do produce because I was a vegetarian. Just to clear the air, Jessica is no longer a vegetarian. You know I own a meat processing facility. but but but me yeah
Speaker: um So I wanted to raise certified organic produce on this farm operation and didn't quite understand why my crops weren't growing well without inputs. And so I actually got lives livestock for their outputs, meaning the manure. for compost.
Speaker: So yeah, i I started raising, you know, like, like that snowball approach of, Hey, I'm trying to raise some kids. Now I'm trying to raise some livestock. Now I'm trying to get that product to market because, Hey, this person's asking, this person's asking. um And that started to grow. And all of a sudden I was like, I'm struggling to get product to market. I'm raising certified organic um methodology, but I can't get that in the processing industry. I can't get a product made from those pigs that are on the in the picture that doesn't have every preservative known because other processors didn't didn't come along with the thought to leave out the preservatives and be more natural.
Speaker: Yeah. So, you know, why when you're young and naive and and don't know better, you just jump in. And so since you bought a processing facility. I asked her how organic processing fits into her business now.
Speaker: In a very small manner. And it's always very sad to me because it's such a core component of what I envisioned from the beginning. oh I mentioned that I came to this, I came to food. through wanting to raise certified organic produce and the hurdles that were there.
Speaker: um But yet it's, ah it was at the core of everything that I wanted. And yet I realized all of the hurdles make it such a small percentage of what's out there.
Speaker: So if it's that we are a certified organic meat processing facility and I keep our labels as natural as possible on all of the product. But the truth is that I don't do enough certified organic processing to pay for the the certification.
Speaker: I hold it because it's a core of what I do from, from who I am and what I believe in. And so it's not good business sense to pay for something that doesn't give return. um But I pay for something in this case that hasn't given return through the years.
Speaker: and And in some sense, that's because there's not a lot of certified organic livestock out there. So there's not a lot of certified organic livestock, then, you know, there's not a need for a lot of certified organic processors, the certified organic producers that are out there are selling into a niche marketplace, oftentimes come in, you know, even if they come in and they have a certified organic operation, They don't want to pay the upcharge for the certification because they're selling direct to their customer and they don't need it.
Speaker: So, you know, it's a very small part of what we do. Interestingly, early on, it actually probably was a detriment. Got over it. It was a hurdle. But the word certified organic for our farming community was a bad you know, a bad word. It's like, what in the world is this woman doing? She's bringing into my ag community, the thought that she can do something different and certified organic will actually stick. And, you know, and so i I decided that I would be very quiet about it. I just put it out there that it's a possibility.
Speaker: And I have seen change by taking that approach. It's just, just, you know, you live and then eventually people start asking questions.
Speaker: What struck me as I talked to Jessica was how being a small business and being in close relationship with her customers really allowed her to experiment with different ways of addressing unmet needs in the niche meat industry.
Speaker: For example, she noticed how other farmers were struggling to get their products to market. and And that was kind of an early food hub. So, so food hub is your old marketplace of, of basically an aggregation facility, aggregated in a facility and then distributed out to the marketplace and try to keep closer to your customer customer base throughout that. So shorten the supply chain through aggregation and distribution locally.
Speaker: And it wasn't being used in the meat space. Processing facility seemed to be that. And so when I first got started, it was about, okay, I need to get my product to market and other farmers need to get their product to market. And so, hey, let's let's have this processing center that's a food hub that buys and sells for farmers locally and gets that product out to market, all with label claims into specific marketplaces. I ended up realizing that the need for processing on its own was a business you know ah in in a very needed business. It's something obviously I knew when I got into it, but that part of the business took over.
Speaker: Jessica also noticed how brand development was severely lacking among small meat businesses. You know, I talk about brand consumer product grant goods and it you walk into any grocery store and you see quite a few CPGs on the shelf that are well branded and they have a colorful package and something that's appealing to the consumer base, but it's not in the wheat meat space yet. Right. meat In the meat space, we're excited if we just to get a clear package that a consumer can see.
Speaker: ah we We don't even think of getting our farmers to think about labeling oftentimes. And so, ah the don't know, but we're just back in time somewhat.
Speaker: This Old Farm Inc. now offers brand development for customers in addition to livestock harvesting, processing, and packing. This kind of holistic partnership is an ethos that runs through Jessica's philosophy as a meat processor.
Speaker: You know, initially I came into a very proud family male dominated farming community that might do some freezer beef and had to just keep kind of carving out a marketplace in which we do most of our work now for farmers that are also regenerative minded and trying to get their product to market and see us as a partner.
Speaker: It took a long time to get to that. Hey, we're we're partners in this because in the in the space, and there's some kind of animosity between farmer and processor.
Speaker: just natural animosity. It didn't make any sense to me, but I i was experiencing it over and over again. It's like, and I now understand that when a farmer has put there their their time and energy, and even though, you know, we're we're strong we're strong people, we show up at a processor and we know that I'm putting that animal down, right? To to turn it into meat. And so there's this natural, this is at least the world, according to Jessica, i I think there's this natural, like, I don't want any, I don't want to know anything about what they do. And I'm mad that I'm here, but I know I need to be here to get my product to market.
Speaker: And i experienced that over and over again in the beginning until I understood and started approaching my farming community a little differently. But you find those relationships that work and and you grow it and you understand that it is a hard thing to drive hours, hours. mean, I i mentioned all the surrounding states, so the average distance to processing is 400 miles in the United States. And so these farmers are driving hours.
Speaker: with a load of livestock that was challenging to load and will be challenging to unload. And then they have to do it again to get the meat and get it out to a consumer base. And so their dedication to serving their community is just amazing because the time and effort that they're putting into it is just underappreciated every time. And so I can understand why they might be a little grumpy when they show up.
Speaker: I asked Jessica if she thought the key to developing the niche meat market is establishing more meat processing facilities. The real root cause analysis when I look at the total picture is that we have too few livestock.
Speaker: that our livestock numbers are low. And so for livestock numbers are low, we can't support the processing facilities. It used to be that seven year rotation on land and which we had livestock on almost every farm.
Speaker: And now that's just not the case. And so without the livestock can't have a processing computer center in every community. Like it used to be, used to be that we had livestock and we had processor and the two went to head, hand in hand, um, meat lockers as they used to be called.
Speaker: um And so with our declining, I mean, the beef herd in the United States is said to be as hasn't been at this level since 1961. So our our herd numbers are really low. And we did flood the industry with funding.
Speaker: um We flooded it with additional funding through and after the pandemic era. And now we've built up that processing industry with inexperienced and ah individuals. And I think we're going to have an exodus here in the next few years. So because we don't have the livestock numbers to keep them supported.
Speaker: Despite or maybe because of the difficulty of surviving as a niche meat processor, Jessica serves as a mentor through the Transition to Organic Partnership Program, supporting new meat processors as they establish their business.
Speaker: You can learn more about this old farm incorporated and the MPPTA program at the links in the show notes. Thank you to Jessica and Dave for their time. The Taproot Project is produced by me, Kate Cowie Haskell.
Speaker: Music for this episode includes Chasin' It by Jason Shaw, Are We Loose Yet by Blue Dot Sessions, and Butterfly by Kate Cody.
Speaker: The Taproot Project is an initiative of the Midwest Transition to Organic Partnership Program, a project funded by the USDA National Organic Program to support transitioning and organic producers with mentorship and technical assistance and to grow the greater organic community.
Speaker: Learn more at organictransition.org.
