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Why “Growing GRASS”?

New value-added markets are emerging for beef, bison and other livestock centered on regenerative and “climate smart” claims. Regenerative is an indigenous originated approach to agriculture and the earth that includes within its parameters “climate-smart” considerations and outcomes. Regeneratively managed livestock and landscapes can sequester carbon from the atmosphere through grazed plants into the soil through prescribed grazing approaches that mimic the natural grass and livestock cycle and natural environment, while also resulting in increased soil health, fertility, and water holding capacity.

With growing demand from a consumer base documented to prefer and be willing to pay more for such climate and farmer/rancher friendly products, it would be expected that markets, supply and value for meat, leather and other products sourced from regeneratively raised livestock would be rapidly increasing. Yet while this has come true on the demand level, as it continues to rapidly climb, supply has not followed suit. This is in part due to the high costs of inspections and certifications needed to be part of “climate-smart” markets that can inhibit involvement for many producers, especially smaller and historically underserved farmers and ranchers.

Less recognized as a problem, yet very important, is the loss of value in recent years from the “the other half” – the hides and byproducts that represent up to ½ of the after the meat is processed. Hide and other byproduct sales have historically been a large part of meat processors’ revenue (and still are for the large consolidated meat companies). But in recent years, the market value of many commodity meat processing byproducts, especially hides, has declined dramatically.

This drop in byproduct prices for small-medium sized processors has been compounded by the shrinkage and consolidation that has occurred across the country within the hide collection and rendering industry that these processors depend upon to collect and pay for the materials. The result has been a much smaller and costly collection network, resulting in many small-medium sized meat processors having to pay for or figure out their own hide and byproduct disposal options instead of getting paid for them. This lost value is a major financial challenge for the whole supply chain, as the small-medium sized processors that work with regenerative meat companies are forced to pass these costs back to meat companies/aggregators and livestock producers, reducing all margins in turn.

Instead of being a cost and a barrier to sector growth, the “other half” of regeneratively-raised livestock should return significant, additional value to the supply chain and contribute to sector growth and profitability. Achieving this requires an expansion of affordable and accessible regeneratively raised livestock verification and traceability systems for meat, hides and byproducts. And these materials will need to be collected, processed and sold in viable quantities with backable claims that the market supports.

This approach would not only add significant value to the regenerative livestock and meat sectors, but would increase climate-friendly materials options for the apparel, ingredient and pet food sectors. And through increased profitability, product utilization and market growth, more producers will be incentivized to implement and expand regenerative grazing systems, to the benefit of animals, planet and people. The Generalized Regenerative Agriculture Sourcing Specification (GRASS) system and the Growing GRASS grant project work were devised by Other Half Processing and its partners to help make this new approach to climate-smart byproducts valuation a reality.

What is “GRASS”?

The Generalized Regenerative Agriculture Sourcing Specification (GRASS) uses an equivalency approach to verification that identifies valid indicators and certifications for substantiating regeneratively raised cattle and bison market-based claims. 

GRASS works with existing certification systems such as the American Grassfed Association, Savory, Audubon, and Regenerative Organic Certified to verify “climate-smart” or regenerative raised cattle and bison market-based claims, but also supports company and community approaches that meet the same indicator criteria.   

By allowing producers choice in which verification/certification system to utilize, GRASS encourages both diversity and ongoing innovation in the verification space, and provides farmers and ranchers access to more than one value-added marketplace without additional costs or work. GRASS is currently in use to validate traceable supplies of byproducts like hides, organs and other products from regeneratively-raised beef and bison.