For many ranchers, their connection (and control) of their livestock ends when the animals are shipped off the ranch to either be grain-finished and fattened up in a feedlot, or sent to slaughter and processing at a large, corporate-owned facility.
But that is starting to change as women carve out their place in the meat supply chain, starting from the grass up.
Cory Carman is one rancher who is leading the charge, marketing her beef – and the beef of other ranchers she’s partnered with in the Northwest – to urban, eco-minded consumers.
Cory has built an alternative supply chain, one that is regional and smaller-scale, and it’s bringing more sustainable meat to the market. Can it scale up to compete with the McDonald’s dollar menu?
“Our limitation is not that we can't feed the world, it's that we can't imagine what it's going to take,” Cory said. “But we can totally do it. And we don't have a choice.”
A transcriptof this episode is available.