Over time, Cooks wants to license its IP around regenerative agriculture to farmers who grow chicken feed, contracting them out to grow more biodiverse crops and ultimately feed Cooks Venture chickens. It tastes better, too, according to Wadiak, but that’s not the only (or most important) benefit.Ĭooks has its own farm to grow its feed and its own processing plant for the chickens it raises, partnering with a handful of retailers to sell its chickens to consumers (you can also buy one through the Cooks Venture website). It starts with the chickens themselves.Ĭooks Venture has done over a decade of research around chicken genetics to land on a proprietary pedigree line, the Pioneer, which is selectively bred to grow slower with a stronger immune system and much stronger gut health. On a smaller scale, this can lead to bland-tasting meat, but it also leaves the country’s supply of chicken open to being decimated by a virus.Ĭooks Venture, founded by Blue Apron co-founder Matt Wadiak, is looking to dismantle the existing system, one step at a time. It props up a conventional agricultural apparatus that focuses on corn and soy production, not to mention fosters a system where the vast majority of chicken available to consumers has been systemically inbred, lacking genetic diversity. And yet, the system in place to breed and feed and raise all this chicken is incredibly detrimental to our overall well-being. A good second step is to support agricultural products that have regenerative and sustainable initiatives behind them.Chicken is the most consumed meat in the United States and the world. It starts with educating ourselves about and being aware of what's going on in farming. "The answer on how to affect change is complex. "There isn't going to be an overnight change that improves the health of our soil, water, and animal and plant life," Troy notes. Simply put, the chickens' natural behaviors were returning more nutrients to the soil, just like the aforementioned bison of yesteryear. Here the newly planted peach trees were already 2-3 feet taller than those planted on the other side. Their chickens are allowed to go outside every day to forage for insects and plants, in turn fertilizing the ground that they graze."ĭuring his visit, Troy noticed that the animals seemed to favor one side of the pasture behind their barn over another. In the broad scope of poultry production, Cooks Venture is a tiny player, but, according to Troy, "what they're doing there is really big – and truly unique. Kowalski's Meat & Seafood Director Troy Schmeling paid a visit to the Cooks facility in Decatur, Arkansas, late last year. Click here to read more from Our Meat and Seafood Director Troy Schmeling. Regenerative farmers aim to reinvigorate and rebuild these ecosystems by protecting the soil from erosion, integrating livestock, maintaining living root systems year-round, minimizing tilling and maximizing crop diversity. The land lived in perfect balance with the animals, taking what it needed from them and giving back lush, grassy, green pastures for the next grazing season. Back then, bison used to forage these plains, aerating the soil and dispersing native grass seeds with their hooves while naturally fertilizing the soil. Indigenous Americans practiced it long before early American settlers established homesteads in the Midwest. Regenerative farming is not new in fact, it's pretty old. More and more farmers are entering into a serious discussion on how to affect positive change on our agricultural lands – how to leave them better than we found them and, in some cases, even repair some of the damage we've done.
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