Learning more about meat with client Organic Prairie

Meat’s definitely at the center of Watershed’s plate these days, as we expand on the research we started last year with our study on consumers’ attitudes around meat, called The Carnivore’s Dilemma.

As part of a branding project for our new client Organic Prairie, we spent several weeks examining the cultural context for meat: what the conversations are around meat buying, butchering, cooking, eating, safety, nutrition, meat’s role in environmental issues…even meat as entertainment.

And then we went to the source of all that meat – farm country in Wisconsin, headquarters of Organic Prairie and its parent company Organic Valley – to get a first-hand look at some organic farms and farmer-ranchers, as well as to meet the whole Organic Prairie management team. The most interesting challenge I learned about was the fact that Organic Prairie needs to sell the whole animal, but not in the way a small farmer sells an entire animal to a restaurant or through cow-shares. Organic Prairie is a co-op that raises, processes and sells its own animals, so they’re responsible for finding a market for all the meat from every animal. This is the flip side of having so much quality control over their animals – but we love challenges!