FoA 252: Local Meat Processing, Marketing and Logistics with Adam Parks

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thanks to the</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Field Work</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">podcast for sponsoring this episode. Visit</span> <a href= "http://www.fieldwork.org"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">www.FieldWork.org</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">to learn more. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Interest in local and regional food systems has been trending upward for a long time. The pandemic has only accelerated consumer interest in having strong relationships with where they buy their food. But what sounds easy on the outside: farmer produces food and consumer buys it - is much more complicated in practice. First of all, there aren’t enough local/regional slaughterhouses for livestock producers to scale their direct-to-consumer operations because of low margins, regulations, and labor. Today’s episode tells the story of how</span> <a href= "https://www.vicfarmmeats.com/author/adamparks/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Adam Parks</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">built a local meat business, and how he is part of a group that has formed a cooperative to solve this problem of local meat processing. Adam is the founder of</span> <a href= "https://www.vicfarmmeats.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Victorian Farmstead Meat Company</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">located in Sebastopol, California. They have been selling local meat in the area since 2010 at farmers markets, through a CSA (community supported agriculture), and more recently through home delivery. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>“I developed a network of six to eight local ranches that raised for me… And we set about taking fresh meat to the farmer's market. That was kind of what made us unique was that we were the first local people to really bring fresh meat to the farmer's market.” - Adam Parks</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adam’s collaboration with local producers allowed him to take advantage of