Through Place-Based Direct Marketing
Gary Nabhan, Catherine Freeman, and Ashley Rood
NAU Center for Sustainable Environments, Canyon Country Fresh, and Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT)
Excerpt from Program:
"There are far more livestock breeds available for land restoration and sustainable agricultural production in the West than ranchers and sheepherders have selected to utilize in their efforts to revitalize 'the radical center.' Particular livestock breeds can be selected to deal with different ratios of shrubs versus grass and forbs, with wetlands versus drylands, with cold versus warm microclimates. Minor breeds of goats and sheep are already being mobilized in Arizona and New Mexico to reduce fire risk in the wildland/urban interface, and to reduce or reverse shrub encroachment into grasslands. There are new niche markets opening up for grassfed beef, mutton, and goat from minor breeds that are valued for their distinctive flavors and for their links to cultural heritage. Finally, land trusts and conservation easements needing to 'add conservation and economic value' to their other objectives would do well to consider increasing populations of threatened and endangered breeds of livestock, since few smallscale farms and ranches have the capacity to build herds up to the sizes needed for their long-term survival. All of these factors make 'heritage livestock breeds' a neglected but growing opportunity to integrate into sustainable land management in the West."

Presentation Outline:

• Economic Viability Needed to Sustain Ecological and Cultural Values
• Integrating Four Strategies for Economic Viability of Ranches
• Meeting Land Needs
• Matching Livestock Breeds with Conservation Mandates
• Focus on Minor Breeds Adapted to the Southwest
• Exceptional Conservation Successes
• Demand Currently Outstrips Supply
• Defining and Promoting Your Goals
• Labeling Guidelines for Niche Marketing
• Marketing Opportunities Are Expanding, But Require Reorientation