Southeastern Sustainable Livestock Conference: 2014

What have The Epicurean & The Activist been up to lately?  Organizing a livestock conference, that's what!
Not with animals and barn sales….no it was a gathering of folks mainly from the southeast to learn, network and pass on their experience and expertise in the field of sustainable animal agriculture.
We had a stellar list of sponsors:- Animal Welfare Approved, White Oak Pastures, Whole Foods Market, Coyote Creek Organic Feed Mill, Global Speciality Foods Inc, Farm Burger, and organized by yours truly at Vital Awareness; with a star studded list of speakers - including Matthew O'Hayer CEO of Vital Farms, Leah Garces USA Director for Compassion In World Farming, Adele Douglas founder of Certified Humane, Donn Cooper Farmer Coordinator from Georgia Organics, and the list goes on (check out the website for the full list at Southeastern Sustainable Livestock Conference).

So why organize a livestock conference, what was the point of it, or more formally what was its mission? 

“Realizing that the catalyst for change will come from consumer demand, the Vital Awareness team set about organizing the Conference to bring together farmers, processors and consumers (individuals and businesses) to promote sustainably produced meat. The goals of the conference are to assist farmers provide the highest welfare for their livestock, market their meat, and educate consumers about what it takes to produce meat from animals raised under high welfare standards…ultimately creating a permanent platform to expand the market for meat produced through these standards."

The weekend kicked off with a farm tour to White Oak Pastures on friday, which included a tour of the pastures, processing plants, and lunch at the pasture to plate restaurant pavilion.








Conference day was on Saturday with a jam packed day of seminars lead by an exceptional array of speakers from the sustainable agricultural community.  Lunch was provided by Farm Burger, and meat at dinner was pulled pork from Thompson Farms Smokehouse, and beef from White Oak Pastures.

It was an amazing experience for us as organizers and we had wonderful feedback form the attendees…so I think we can mark it up as a success, and gear ourselves up for 2015

There is lots to tell and lots to write about but we are going  to let two of our favourite bloggers give you a full run down on the weekend's events - so stay tuned.

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