Chapter 2
Local livestock
Two Oklahoma meat suppliers are going against the grain of conventional agriculture, backed by support from OU
Chapter 2
Local livestock
Two Oklahoma meat suppliers are going against the grain of conventional agriculture, backed by support from OU
Three years ago, Adam Gribben was selling meat from local ranchers out of four blue Igloo coolers in the back of a friend’s bike shop.
It was his attempt at fixing an agricultural system that had left small farmers in its dust, but the startup company was quickly fading, sustained only by a devoted base of around 25 buyers.
It wasn’t until Gribben had a purchase order from OU in hand that his meat processing company, 1907 Meat Co., took off.
Today, Gribben operates a butcher shop in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and he drives a 1907-labeled van stocked with meat from three cows and three pigs packaged in dozens of boxes to several locations across campus every Thursday. Both sides of the business allow him to sell beef supplied by small operations run by Oklahoma ranchers.
OU buys roughly half of its meat from unconventional, local beef and pork suppliers that include 1907 and Peach Crest Ranch, a farm in Norman, said Dave Annis, OU’s Housing and Food director. As a result of a student-inspired commitment to providing local food on campus that started years ago, 40 percent of OU’s total food, including eggs, meat and vegetables, is locally sourced.
Housing and Food selects vendors like 1907 and Peach Crest based on the ability to meet a certain set of standards for raising livestock, the availability of the product when OU needs it and the economic impact made possible through the relationship, Annis said.
“That’s part of what we enjoy doing, too, is finding folks that, like Brad (Burnett, OU’s ‘Egg Man’) or like Adam, that need a little bit of backing or need a little bit of help to get something up and running,” Annis said.
Three years ago, Adam Gribben was selling meat from local ranchers out of four blue Igloo coolers in the back of a friend’s bike shop.
It was his attempt at fixing an agricultural system that had left small farmers in its dust, but the startup company was quickly fading, sustained only by a devoted base of around 25 buyers.
It wasn’t until Gribben had a purchase order from OU in hand that his meat processing company, 1907 Meat Co., took off.
Today, Gribben operates a butcher shop in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and he drives a 1907-labeled van stocked with meat from three cows and three pigs packaged in dozens of boxes to several locations across campus every Thursday. Both sides of the business allow him to sell beef supplied by small operations run by Oklahoma ranchers.
OU buys roughly half of its meat from unconventional, local beef and pork suppliers that include 1907 and Peach Crest Ranch, a farm in Norman, said Dave Annis, OU’s Housing and Food director. As a result of a student-inspired commitment to providing local food on campus that started years ago, 40 percent of OU’s total food, including eggs, meat and vegetables, is locally sourced.
Housing and Food selects vendors like 1907 and Peach Crest based on the ability to meet a certain set of standards for raising livestock, the availability of the product when OU needs it and the economic impact made possible through the relationship, Annis said.
“That’s part of what we enjoy doing, too, is finding folks that, like Brad (Burnett, OU’s ‘Egg Man’) or like Adam, that need a little bit of backing or need a little bit of help to get something up and running,” Annis said.
1907 Meat Co.
Gribben, an Oklahoma State University electrical engineering alumnus, was working a steady job at a Dallas engineering firm after college when, on one of many plane rides required for the job, he picked up a book called “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan.
The book, which explores the widespread impact of simple food choices, sparked his interest in the food industry. But it was the dirt roads he often biked while visiting friends in Stillwater post-college that led him to trace these systemic issues in agriculture to his own backyard.
“I knew there were all these farms from riding our bicycles down all these dirt roads, gravel roads, for tens — if not hundreds — of miles,” Gribben said. “You’d see ‘em out there, so I just started talking to farmers, and once I started discovering that, ‘Oh man, there’s a bigger problem here.’”
Even in an agricultural powerhouse like Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University’s College of Agriculture, grocery shopping was limited to places like Walmart that primarily stock processed foods from national corporations, leaving the small, local farmers out of the picture.
But where Gribben saw a problem, he also envisioned a solution.
1907 Meat Co.
Gribben, an Oklahoma State University electrical engineering alumnus, was working a steady job at a Dallas engineering firm after college when, on one of many plane rides required for the job, he picked up a book called “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan.
The book, which explores the widespread impact of simple food choices, sparked his interest in the food industry. But it was the dirt roads he often biked while visiting friends in Stillwater post-college that led him to trace these systemic issues in agriculture to his own backyard.
“I knew there were all these farms from riding our bicycles down all these dirt roads, gravel roads, for tens — if not hundreds — of miles,” Gribben said. “You’d see ‘em out there, so I just started talking to farmers, and once I started discovering that, ‘Oh man, there’s a bigger problem here.’”
Even in an agricultural powerhouse like Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University’s College of Agriculture, grocery shopping was limited to places like Walmart that primarily stock processed foods from national corporations, leaving the small, local farmers out of the picture.
But where Gribben saw a problem, he also envisioned a solution.
While researching, Gribben discovered a gaping hole in the supply chain — processing plants. Per his estimates, slightly over a dozen kill floors, where livestock are slaughtered and processed, remain in the state. This means farmers are forced to ship out of state, which leaves the local food chain effectively closed.
“If you’re looking to give back to the local farmers or try and help them out of a jam, there is a manufacturing step between cow and hamburger,” Gribben said. “And that is the processing facilities.”
Gribben sought to use his butcher shop and restaurant, which serves local food and also sells wholesale to OU, to connect these broken links by bringing together the farmer and the local consumer base.
At the start, however, Gribben’s new concept seemed doomed. He had fewer than 30 buyers he could count on monthly. That’s when he caught a lucky break and attended a local food conference put on by the OU group Students Against a Factory-farming Economy.
He left with contacts in OU Housing and Food Services and, soon, a contract to supply one head of cattle and one hog per week to the university.
“To be honest, without OU, we wouldn’t have even made our shot — we didn’t have that much demand when we first started,” Gribben said. “Since January 2016, these guys have been pulling agriculture single-handedly out of a closed-market channel, and hopefully others will pick up. OU can’t haul the mail just by itself, although it’s trying.”
While researching, Gribben discovered a gaping hole in the supply chain — processing plants. Per his estimates, slightly over a dozen kill floors, where livestock are slaughtered and processed, remain in the state. This means farmers are forced to ship out of state, which leaves the local food chain effectively closed.
“If you’re looking to give back to the local farmers or try and help them out of a jam, there is a manufacturing step between cow and hamburger,” Gribben said. “And that is the processing facilities.”
Gribben sought to use his butcher shop and restaurant, which serves local food and also sells wholesale to OU, to connect these broken links by bringing together the farmer and the local consumer base.
At the start, however, Gribben’s new concept seemed doomed. He had fewer than 30 buyers he could count on monthly. That’s when he caught a lucky break and attended a local food conference put on by the OU group Students Against a Factory-farming Economy.
He left with contacts in OU Housing and Food Services and, soon, a contract to supply one head of cattle and one hog per week to the university.
“To be honest, without OU, we wouldn’t have even made our shot — we didn’t have that much demand when we first started,” Gribben said. “Since January 2016, these guys have been pulling agriculture single-handedly out of a closed-market channel, and hopefully others will pick up. OU can’t haul the mail just by itself, although it’s trying.”
Gribben has built a network of local ranchers, around 20 at its peak, whose livestock he purchases and sells to OU. He demands transparency from each, and though he does not require certifications for grass-fed or organic, he asks that they grow livestock humanely treated and free of hormones or antibiotics.
He has his mantra — “good for the animal, good for the customer, good for the farmer” — and is able to pay 50 cents to a dollar more per pound to farmers because of the higher quality.
“You can actually save the world on OU hamburgers,” Gribben said. “I’m not going to say we’re saving agriculture single-handedly, you know we’re a drop in the bucket, but it’s a big bucket so even a few drops helps.”
Gribben has built a network of local ranchers, around 20 at its peak, whose livestock he purchases and sells to OU. He demands transparency from each, and though he does not require certifications for grass-fed or organic, he asks that they grow livestock humanely treated and free of hormones or antibiotics.
He has his mantra — “good for the animal, good for the customer, good for the farmer” — and is able to pay 50 cents to a dollar more per pound to farmers because of the higher quality.
“You can actually save the world on OU hamburgers,” Gribben said. “I’m not going to say we’re saving agriculture single-handedly, you know we’re a drop in the bucket, but it’s a big bucket so even a few drops helps.”
Peach Crest Ranch
Standing on the crest of a hill overlooking her pastures where cows graze freely, Susan Bergen can see OU’s football stadium jutting up along the horizon.
The ranch, which sits less than 10 miles from campus, is linked to OU in more than just proximity — it helps supply beef and pork to feed students on campus.
Like Gribben, Bergen is working against a conventional agriculture system. Between the ranch in Norman and another in Sulphur, Bergen supplies pasture-raised livestock, meaning cows graze freely on untreated land and are slaughtered at an Animal Welfare Approved location.
Bergen first became concerned by the issues associated with conventional agriculture while overseeing a peach farm, one of her family’s many operations, over a decade ago, where a full hazmat suit was required to spray chemicals on the fruit.
“It doesn’t take lot to be somewhat conscious of ‘Maybe I don’t want to be putting that in my mouth.’ If I don’t want to put it in my mouth, I don’t want to sell it to you,” Bergen said. “In ‘05, I said ‘No more.’ So that started me looking at where we were going, so here I am 13 years later, really having a lot of success in going a different direction.”
Bergen’s ranches now include cows that graze freely with no hormones or antibiotics and pigs raised in a similarly humane way. OU purchases one cow every other week and two pigs per week from Peach Crest, Annis said.
Christie Cochell, who works at Peach Crest, said she is impressed that OU includes local farmers in its food supply system.
“It is unique that they have these programs at all,” Cochell said. “We can appreciate being able to be included at OU and that there are people on campus that are excited about it.”
Bergen said she believes it is important to consider the way food choices can impact a wide area beyond just the food industry.
“Every time we spend a dollar, there’s a consequence to that. Every time we Amazon Prime something in, there’s a consequence to that — it’s a cardboard box, it’s a moving truck, the amount of consumer waste on those type of decisions is astronomical,” Bergen said. “There’s huge consequences to the choices that we’re making. I don’t think we’re looking at that. So my hope is that we would all become more aware of just where our food comes from and the consequences of those choices.”
Bergen employs many ranchers and farmers, including Jonathan Moore, an OU alumnus who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering last May. His interest in agriculture led him to accept an offer to work for Bergen when the unique opportunity presented itself.
Moore said competing with big-business farmers is difficult and only made possible by the hard work he puts in around the clock. While most of his days involve feeding, watering and corralling pigs, he must also take them to slaughter and understand market trends.
“You just have to have 10 different hats — you do all the jobs,” Moore said. “You have to shop around, you have to know the right prices … it’s just constant, constant work. Everyone else goes home at 5, while you still have a whole other job to go do.”
Against the grain
People like Gribben and Bergen are anomalies in a food system that is built to accommodate large-scale farms and ranches.
OU’s relationship with these local partners stemmed initially from student-driven desire to know where their food came from.
Bridget Burns, founder of Students Against a Factory-farming Economy and 2014 graduate of OU, was instrumental in bringing the local food movement to campus and said she thinks it’s crucial to have student involvement.
“I think it’s important for students, as a very significant part of the university community, to not only have that knowledge, but to have a voice in how the dining services (are) run and what type of vendors we support,” Burns said.
Gribben also stressed the importance of the students’ voice in bringing about change.
“It was the students that demanded this and got it, so you are very lucky that you have an administration that listens and even does something like this,” Gribben said. “This is the only one, as far as I know, that said, ‘Okay, if you guys want it, we will go make our best-faith effort to make this.’”
But Annis said OU Housing and Food must balance the student desire for humane and locally sourced food with a tight budget, so OU will most likely not be able to purchase any more locally sourced meat than it currently does.
“If our customer came to us and said, ‘Yeah we really like this initiative, we want you to buy more local beef,’ we’d look into it,” Annis said. “But up to this point, our students are also very vocal about ‘We want you to keep our costs down, we don’t want to see our costs continue to rise.’ So, as best as we can, we’re trying to balance what we do — provide as much local product, whether it’s beef or vegetables or whatever, as much local product as we can within the budget that we have.”
Burns said she recognizes that OU has taken important steps in forming relationships with local vendors and hopes to see the commitment continued in the long term.
“I’m really excited to see what the university community can build for Oklahoma,” Burns said. “And I think that building a space where students and faculty and farmers and workers and environmentalists can work together, and talk about a food system that is better for everybody, is a very worthy thing to do.”
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