Featured CSA: Sonoma County Meat Buying Club, California
Sonoma County is best known for its wine grapes, but thanks to an experiment conducted by the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), its livestock producers are giving the county a reputation for quality meat as well. In early 2008, the university’s cooperative extension service partnered with Sonoma Direct, a local meat wholesaler with processing capacity, to launch the Sonoma County Meat Buying Club.
The club’s coordinator, Jacqueline Rotlisberger, said the UCCE’s Sonoma County office was looking for a way to help local ranchers stay viable. “Grapes are important in this area, of course, but we want to ensure that other farmers can also survive and thrive here,” Rotlisberger says. “We saw the success of vegetable CSAs and decided to see if it could be replicated with livestock.”
Beginning with a survey posted online and mailed to area residents by the county’s water utility, the UCCE gauged local interest in a meat buying club. The response was overwhelming: 300 households returned the survey and 70 signed up for the first season of monthly boxes of various frozen cuts of meat. Fifteen farmers supply the club’s regular deliveries of grass-fed beef and lamb, corn-finished beef, and pastured pork, which are all raised without antibiotics. Eggs, goat meat, bacon, and duck are also available by request. To participate in the club, farms must be located in Sonoma County or within 25 miles of its borders.
Through word of mouth and publicity generated by club-sponsored dinners featuring the work of local chefs, the club’s membership grew to 140. Recent improvements in service include extended pick-up times and more convenient pick-up locations.
A recent grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers Market Promotion Program (which seeks to improve and expand farmers markets and CSAs) will enable Rotlisberger and her UCCE colleagues to run the club for at least another year. In the meantime, they will not only attempt to identify a nonprofit organization that could take over the CSA, but also develop a business plan to share with other groups interested in starting meat buying clubs.
Photo Credit: Sonoma County Meat Buying Club
