Meat Business Fundamentals – Leadership & Management Skills for Values-Driven Farm Businesses

Olivia Tincani is a food and agriculture business educator and consultant and with over 20 years of experience in the field. Olivia Tincani & Co. provides business, financial and strategic planning and training for small-scale independent food and farm businesses and the institutions that service them. She has specific expertise in entrepreneurial empowerment for farmers and ranchers, program and curriculum design, whole animal supply chains, livestock businesses, and community building. An ambitious spirit infuses her teaching and consulting, inspired by her personal entrepreneurial endeavors. She is currently designing and executing farm business training programming for the The Conservation Fund’s Working Farms Fund, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Fibershed, Chicago Botanic Garden and the Grazing School of the West. Past projects include work with venerated organizations such as Glynwood, Ecotrust, and Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance alongside independent coaching for a roster of small and mid-scale sustainable farms. She served as a Business & Communications Strategist for 8 years for Rancho Llano Seco in Chico, CA. She has deep history in food business operations as the co-founder of landmark joint restaurant/farm enterprises Farm 255 and Farm Burger in the rural southeast, and food service design and management company Just Fare in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is on the Advisory Board of the National Farm Viability Conference and was a founding Board member of Kitchen Table Advisors. Olivia splits time between Sonoma County (CA) and her friend’s organic rice farm in Maremma, (Italy), with her hands in the dirt and her skin in the game.

Chance Weston is currently the Food Sovereignty Director for Thunder Valley CDC. He has years of extensive experience in working for federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service. Most recently working for the BIA in lease contract compliance. Chance was selected as Vice-Chairman to the Oglala Sioux Tribe Renewable Energy Development Authority and as an Oglala Sioux Tribe Utilities Commissioner both of which oversaw the creation, development and implementation of regenerative and sustainable wind energy projects like the Oceti Sakowin Power Authority. He also has many years of experience in small business administration and development in sustainable environmental service enterprises within his region and has been involved in government contracting on various scales. Within small business creation, Chance also has experience in Hubzone and 8(a) business creation. His 10 years of regenerative agriculture experience in regenerative farming and ranching with local producers has created new models to be utilized within federal compliance for farm and range leases while showcasing the origination of regenerative principles within Lakota/Indigenous frameworks and communities. He completed intensive training in agroecology to measure all environmental impact through the Integrity Soils CREATE Program to enhance his Lakota Land Systems Thinking.

David Zarling is a career butcher with extensive boots-on-the-ground experience in humane handling and slaughter, whole animal fabrication and value-added processing, both as an operator and plant manager. He specializes in food safety and operations process management, plant management and team training, as well as new product development.Currently, he manages the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network at Oregon State University, providing direct technical assistance to meat processors around the country, as well as providing onsite team process training and plant management coaching services to processing plants. His management philosophy is that ‘our people are our greatest assets’ and that leadership is a practice of service, allowing our technical operators to do their best work.