We can be pretty certain that in the coming days we will hear this message over and over again “So what if most of the meat on our supermarket shelves is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria? If you handle and cook your meat properly then a few bacteria shouldn’t be a problem; and if you get sick with an untreatable disease then it’s your own fault.’
This is the kind of contemptible retort we can expect from the intensive meat industry lobby and its many trolls in response to new research by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which reveals high levels of life-threatening antibiotic-resistant bacteria on raw supermarket meat. Yet the “cook it properly and everything will be OK” spin is just Big Ag’s latest attempt to absolve itself of any responsibility for squandering one of the most important medical innovations of our time– and putting American lives at risk.
Buck N Buffalo ranch raise AWA-certified bison on more than 1,500 acres in Burnet County, Texas. The ranch is owned by Robert, Bridget and Ryan McGowen, and is managed by Jack Henderson and Larry Wilson. After buying the property from eight different landowners to create a contiguous ranch, Robert, Ryan and Jack added bison in 2010 to manage the grassland in harmony with the deer that inhabit the ranch.
Harral Livestock Company has been in operation for over 173 years. Situated near Fort Stockton, Texas, the enterprise began in 1840 and has been taken over by each successive generation in the Harral family ever since. Today, the Harrals proudly manage the family business just as their ancestors did back in the 19th Century, producing a quality, wholesome product, and employing reliable, sustainable business practices.
Jason Butler and his family raise AWA-certified beef cattle and sheep in the Coastal region of North Carolina. Jason has been farming since 1996, when his father purchased the family farm after serving in the Army. The Butlers – including Jason’s father, Billy, his wife, Crystal, his grandfather, Mearl, and his brother-in-law, James Spivey – now raise 140 Black Angus cattle and a flock of Katahdin sheep on approximately 500 acres of pasture. Jason says that the benefits of pasture-based management are that the farm is more sustainable: “We’re not over-utilizing acres somewhere else to grow grain for our animals. We’re using what we have here.”
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Animal Welfare Approved | February 27, 2013
In 2006, Brad and Margaret Buchanan and their two children, Will and Grace, moved from Denver, CO, to a ranch near Stasburg, about 40 miles east of their old home. A year later, the family bought a small herd of 22 beef cattle and established Flying B Bar Ranch, a high-welfare operation producing grassfed beef.
In 2004, Kevin and Debi Bredeson moved to Kiowa, Colorado (about 40 miles southeast of Denver), after Kevin retired from a corporate career. Establishing KDL Ranch on the high plains of Colorado has allowed them both to pursue their dreams: Kevin became a cattle rancher and Debi has been able to dedicate herself to gardening.
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Animal Welfare Approved | February 20, 2013
John and Kris Gosney both inherited Oklahoma centennial farms from their families who came to the state in the 1893 Oklahoma Land Rush. They like to say that their “roots go deep into the soil of Oklahoma,” where they raise between 250 and 300 head of AWA-certified, and OKDFF/USDA organic certified Angus cross cattle on 3,000 acres of pasture in northwest Oklahoma on John’s Farm.
Donna Schauer, a lawyer and magistrate judge, grew up with horses and raising lambs. When her two oldest daughters were young, their family continued to raise animals, but this time horses and poultry. Despite her passion for country living, her profession kept her in the city for many years – until 2004, when she bought land in rural Dallas County, Iowa, and established Sunny Silver Maple Farm.
While both Dana Tryde and Eric Michielssen had grandparents that worked the land, their parents chose to leave the family farms. But when the couple first met in 1999, Dana and Eric quickly learned of their similar family legacies and their shared interest in returning to the land. In 2002, they established Clark Valley Farm and Horse Boarding in Los Osos, California, where they ran a diverse organic produce operation and sustainably-managed horse facility. In 2010, they settled at Pozo Organic Farm in the tiny community of Pozo, 25 miles east of San Luis Obispo. In addition to the horses that Dana and Eric brought from the old farm and the row crops, berries, and fruit trees they are growing, the farm is now home to a flock of Animal Welfare Approved laying hens.
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Animal Welfare Approved | December 20, 2012
Debbie and Brien Campbell have been raising livestock and growing produce on for themselves and friends since 1989. But while Debbie holds an agricultural science degree and Brien’s father, Dan, has owned a hay business his whole life, the couple both worked elsewhere to support the farm and their family of nine. In 2008, the couple purchased Hog and Dogs Ranch/Produce in Herlad, California and when Debbie was recently laid off, the family decided to put all their efforts into the family ranch.
