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As a healthy red meat company, we answer a lot of questions regarding how our buffalo are raised, what they are fed, and how they are harvested. Our customers are looking for more then what’s on a label, they want real answers. Many producers, including ourselves, use words to explain there products such as; sustainable, grass-fed, free-range, organic, natural, and humanely treated. Many of these labels have guidelines behind them. But to a consumer, what do they all really mean? Are these labels just marketing tools or do they have truthful value? To help shed some light on these labels, and to help answer questions you might have on Wild Idea Buffalo Co. products, as well as to satisfy our own curiosities, I sat down and did some investigating. As a producer we do our best to be completely transparent with our customers. It can not however be summed up into a word or two, it requires an explanation. The explanation goes something like this: Wild Idea Buffalo meat is; 100% antibiotic & hormone free, 100% pastured/free roaming, 100% grass-fed only, 100% non-confined, 100% humanely treated, and 100% humanely harvested. (And we are 100% telling the truth.) This explanation is followed by many detailed footnotes.   Does that make us sustainable buffalo ranchers and meat producers? Yes. If you consider the condensed explanation of sustainability related to ranching and agricultural practices, your definition would be; From Wikipedia: Sustainability is the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future. From the Commission on Environment & Development: In short, sustainability is “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. We participate in sustainability by; putting abused lands back to native grass, returning the native buffalo back to its homeland, which in turn rejuvenates the ecosystem, as well as other native species, and we use limited fossil fuels in our ranch operation. It is our attempt at leaving our small piece of this world a little better then what we found it.   Are we grass-fed? Yes, 100% grass-fed, in a free roaming non-confined environment. From grass-fed 101: There is currently no USDA-standardized definition of grass fed. This makes the term grass-fed misleading, as many producers use the term grass-fed but forget to tell you that their animals have been “finished”. Finishing is a process of fattening the animal for the last 90 to 160 days on an un-natural diet of corn, grains and other. What is other you ask? My father’s last job was for a small feed-lot operator in North Dakota. During a visit, he gave Dan and me a tour. It was my first time on a feed-lot, and even though it was small by factory feed-lots, it was still awful. I could see that my father felt similarly by the look in his eyes. Our last stop on the property was the feed storage area. At our feet were piles of silage. Not a silage of chopped up corn and hay, but an other type of silage consisting of French fries, potato ole’s, hamburger buns, chewing gum still in the foil wrapper, (I guess no one was willing to peel the wrappers off for the cows), and other discarded fast food items.  Our disgusted silence was soon interrupted by a tractor. The driver lowered the bucket on his front end loader, scooped up a big shovel full and then moved off to feed the cows. So even if you are trying to avoid fast food, you could very well be eating …