Website: http://browseandgrass.org
The Browse and Grass Farmer Association brings together sheep and goat herders from family-owned farms.
The association is committed to raising their livestock in settings perfectly suited to the animals’ innate characters and dietary needs — pastures, meadows and woodlots. These settings naturally provide high-forage diets, which never include any added animal by-products, antibiotics or growth hormones. Livestock spend their days in the open air, grazing 90–100 percent of their lives.
The sheep and goats are humanely handled from birth to harvest following “Spirit of Humane” values, which embody scientifically proven and internationally recognized humane practices.
Browse and Grass farmers actively practice conservation and preservation, while using sustainable methods to improve soil and increase biodiversity. The association is also committed to paying producer members a fair price for their products in order to compensate for the extra skill, labor and commitment required to fulfill the association’s values of animal welfare, naturally healthy foods, unsurpassed product quality, environmental stewardship and vibrant communities.
As a values-driven and highly entrepreneurial organization, the Browse and Grass Farmers Association is involved in a number of commercial and community-oriented initiatives.
- Shepherd Song is the brand developed by Browse and Grass to market lamb and goat meat products. Browse & Grass has also developed a focus on direct marketing Halal-certified goat meat to refugee communities as well as other markets.
- Spirit of Humane, which combines a deep commitment to animal welfare and dietary self-sufficiency among communities of lesser means, has developed a low-cost restraint system to make humane slaughter easily affordable and available in all corners of the world.
- Halal and Tayyib is a collaboration between the Somali refugee population in Barron, Wis., local producers and business and job creation specialists. It is building on a shared commitment to serving sustainably produced, authentic halal food while providing the ethnic community an infrastructure for fostering entrepreneurial opportunities.