Rob and Michelle Stokes raise Animal Welfare Approved goats, hogs, and laying hens at Circle O Livestock LLC in Vale, OR. Rob and Michelle believe in working closely with their animals and the environment to create a sustainable enterprise. Handling animals with respect and compassion, while using a poly culture approach in their ranching practices, is the model they feel makes the most sense. By running a diversified operation and practicing rotational grazing, they make the best use of their land while maintaining and improving soil health.

Louisa and Bob Wooton of Kauai Kunana Dairy produce fresh Hawaiian farmstead goat cheese. They have been raising goats in Hawaii since 1979 and making goat cheese for the past decade. “We are the only dairy on the island of Kauai,” Louisa Wooton says proudly. “Kauai Kunana Dairy is a true family farm. We built everything on the farm ourselves, including the house. Our eldest son Ryan and his wife Sarah are our partners.”

Increased food security is one of the guiding principles behind Eden Earthworks, run by Dr. Neena Roumell. Roumell is originally from Detroit and worked with low-income mothers there, who were given vouchers through the WIC program to buy fresh produce. “In Detroit,” Roumell noted, “there were over 300 community gardens, but there were none on this side of the Big Island when I arrived here. Hawaii is just starting to build its network of food production and farmstands, and I didn’t want lower income people to be left out. I looked at food models that concentrated on boosting income and nutritional intake and Eden Earthworks was formed.”

Hawaii Lowline Cattle Company is proud to be part of the resurgence in Hawaii of raising and finishing cattle locally, on pasture. The farm was started by Rick and Haleakala Sakata and Dwayne and Tammie Cypriano, both of Ahualoa, Hawaii. Dwayne Cypriano, an independent rancher who formerly worked in cow-calf operations (keeping a breeding herd of cows and weaning calves for the feedlot system), and Rick Sakata saw an opportunity to do their part to advance Hawaii’s food self-sufficiency by building a herd of Lowline Angus cattle on their ranches. “Lowlines are Angus beef cattle in a compact, smaller frame size. They originated in Australia, where the beef is known for its excellent taste, texture and tenderness characteristics,” Sakata explained. “We were looking for two things when establishing our herd: cattle that were docile and cattle that were well-suited to beef production on grass, and that more efficiently converted grass to meat than today’s larger breeds. Because of their moderate size, two Lowlines can use the pasture space of one of today’s larger breeds, providing more beef per acre of grass and making the land more productive. That’s very important on an island with limited pasture space.”

Joann Hutton, a fourth generation cattle rancher, was six years old when she got her first heifer and she’s had cattle ever since. In the 1990s she took holistic management classes and in 2000 began raising grassfed beef. In 2005, she purchased land east of the Cascade Mountains, where she raises Horned Hereford cattle. Her herd has a small amount of Shorthorn and Angus genetics and some of the same blood lines from her first Horned Hereford cattle. She keeps her own cattle for replacements and only buys bulls for breeding.

Terry and Laurie Carlson, along with their grandson Brian and 38 dairy goats, work as a team, making raw milk aged cheeses on a seasonal basis. It’s a small-scale farm in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. The family sells at farmers markets, outlets in Portland, and at an on-site farmstand.

Jesse and Hannah Fouch run a cattle operation in California where some might say they do the impossible. “Our goal is to produce quality products while improving our environment at the same time,” Jesse explains. This means they take a holistic approach to ranching, from keeping their farm in the family to raising heritage breed Dexter cattle. Their entire herd is raised on pasture, even when they are being finished for market. They graze in harmony with the land producing lush landscapes on the farm, and are given the lowest stress living environment possible.

Diaz Murray is no stranger to cattle ranching: he was born on a ranch in 1962. His current herd started in Montana in 1974, until he moved in 1998 to Texas where he currently works with his wife Laura. It was Laura who encouraged Diaz to join the Grassfed Livestock Alliance in Texas in order to sell wholesale with like-minded farmers.

In 1999, Ellen Ochoa bought two goats for each her two daughters for their 4-H project. Each year the herd of goats grew, until they were milking 20 goats and found themselves running a dairy. In 2005, Jeff Poulos, a high school science teacher, joined the family. Jeff has since retired from teaching and together they now milk 250 goats and sell all of their milk to their neighbors at Redwood Hill Creamery, who make award-winning cheese, yogurt and kefir. Ellen and Jeff plan to create their own line of Alma de Luna Animal Welfare Approved goat cheeses.

Chaffin Family Orchards got its start in the early 1900s, when founder Del Chaffin bought land from his alma mater, University of California, Berkeley. Looking for a place he could grow a wide variety of fruit year round, he found the microclimate of his Oroville farm perfect for raising orchard crops, cattle, sheep and other animals in an environmentally sensitive way. “It’s an ideal location; the climate is mild all year and the soil is rich,” says Carol Albrecht, Del’s granddaughter, who runs the farm with her husband Kurt and sales manager Chris Kerston.