{"id":209251,"date":"2024-07-09T09:25:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T15:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/?p=209251"},"modified":"2024-07-09T09:25:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T15:25:24","slug":"land-is-kin-old-salt-festival-celebrates-local-food-and-open-landscapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montanafreepress.org\/2024\/07\/09\/land-is-kin-old-salt-festival-celebrates-local-food-and-open-landscapes\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Land is kin\u2019: Old Salt Festival celebrates local food and open landscapes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HELMVILLE \u2014 Sitting on hay bales in the bed of an old pick-up truck, Montana rancher Cooper Hibbard looked out to a crowded pasture. Standing in between sagebrush, people ate lamb raised on Hibbard\u2019s ranch and smoked over a fire that morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hibbard was emotional as he talked about the lamb, slaughtered just six days before. They were so loved, Hibbard said. The lamb spent their lives eating diverse species of grasses, and the land\u2019s nutrients now circled through in the meat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe connection between the land, people and animals is sacred,\u201d Hibbard said. \u201cLand is kin. It deserves to breathe.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a rarity these days for ranchers to see people eating the animals they raise. In the conventional U.S. agricultural market, ranchers sell livestock to out-of-state feedlots and can\u2019t track where the meat is ultimately sold. Just 5% of cattle raised in Montana are processed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But some Montanans are trying to change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the summer solstice, Hibbard spoke to the crowd at the Old Salt Festival<\/a>. It was the second year of the event celebrating Montana food, landscapes and music \u2014 put on by the Old Salt Co-op, a collection of four local ranches<\/a> selling meat directly to consumers, including Hibbard\u2019s Sieben Livestock near Helena.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cattle graze recently outside the Old Salt festival grounds on the Mannix Ranch in Helmville.\n Credit:<\/span> Isabel Hicks \/ MTFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The festival is held in northwest Montana on the Mannix family ranch. Last year, it hosted 1,600 people, and this year grew to 2,000. The three-day event featured conservation-focused panels, Western artisan vendors and meats that an ensemble of chefs roasted over a wood-fired stove. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does have great music, but it\u2019s a food festival first. It\u2019s really meant to highlight the culture that it takes to maintain regenerative agriculture,\u201d Cole Mannix, a fifth-generation rancher and co-founder of Old Salt Co-op, told Montana Free Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think agriculture is reduced by a lot of people to just the production part. But the whole system has to work if you\u2019re going to produce something that\u2019s nourishing. This is a celebration of the whole connection between the producer, the consumer, the land and everything in between,\u201d Mannix said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event is held on grassland the ranch uses for cattle grazing. But for the weekend, crews truck in large tents for vendors and speakers, port-a-potties, water coolers, electric fencing to deter grizzlies and the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival \u2014 which Mannix said has yet to make a profit \u2014 is centered around building consumer support for an alternative agricultural system.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chefs prepare Montana-raised lamb to smoke over the wood fire at the Old Salt Festival in June in Helmville.\n Credit:<\/span> Isabel Hicks \/ MTFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The co-op\u2019s business model essentially skips the middleman, Mannix said. Economists estimate that today, only four companies \u2014 Tyson, JBS, Marfrig and Seaboard \u2014 control about 85% of the U.S. meatpacking industry<\/a>. Their market power means most ranchers must sell their livestock at whatever price the companies set. According to federal statistics, about 39 cents of a dollar spent on beef at a grocery store goes back to the rancher<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Old Salt ranches retain ownership of their product through the supply chain. The meat is finished on pasture \u2014 not a feedlot \u2014 processed locally, and then sold directly to consumers online or at restaurants owned by the ranchers in Helena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea really took off during COVID when people saw first-hand the fragility of the consolidated global food system, Mannix said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really are trying to broaden that definition of agriculture to mean all of us,\u201d Mannix said. \u201cThe consumer is just as much a part of this as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But changing the system is far from easy. For one, livestock finished on grass, rather than grain, take longer to grow and get the fat and marbling consumers expect, Mannix said. That means ranchers are caring for livestock for an additional year on average<\/a>. Regenerative \u2014 or high-density, multi-pasture grazing \u2014 can also require more labor because cattle are moved more frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A chef roasts red peppers, corn, squash and other vegetables over hot coals at the Old Salt Festival in Helmville in June. \n Credit:<\/span> Isabel Hicks \/ MTFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ranchers also must market their own products, build a customer base, manage a website and ship orders nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another hurdle is the lack of local processing facilities for ranchers looking to keep their dollars in-state. The 50-so facilities statewide are often hours away for ranchers<\/a> and book up months in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The co-op currently processes animals in a small facility in Helena. But the space can\u2019t accommodate slaughter, and it is quickly outgrowing its capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, the co-op purchased land to build a slaughter and processing facility outside Helena. It hopes to open in 2025 and process about 4,000 USDA-inspected animals a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building the facility will cost millions, and the co-op is still trying to raise capital, Mannix said. But securing the land is a huge step forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan Miller, the CEO of Steward, a company that provides loans for alternative agriculture projects<\/a>, is a key partner of the Old Salt Co-op and has loaned them more than $6 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller founded Steward in 2016 to provide loans for alternative agriculture projects that struggle to garner funding. Much like how the meatpacking companies have consolidated, so have the smaller banks and loan providers, Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically, existing producers can get loans to buy more land or equipment, and government loan programs focus on commodity crops like corn, soy and wheat. There aren\u2019t many options for people just getting started or experimenting because banks want guaranteed high returns, Miller said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of Steward\u2019s investments are focused on value-added processing, like Old Salt. Each loan \u2014 on average $100,000 \u2014 is from individual investors who care about the viability of regenerative agriculture, Miller said. Projects still need to generate a \u201creasonable\u201d return for investors but can focus on the entire food system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only way it\u2019s going to work is if the producer has control of their product through the end,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brendon Scott Green plays his guitar at Eagle’s Point on the Mannix Ranch at the Old Salt Festival in Helmville in June.\n Credit:<\/span> Isabel Hicks \/ MTFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturday morning of the festival, the Mannixes led people on a walk through a pasture to a hill on the ranch called Eagle\u2019s Point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ground brimmed with sweet clover, wild irises, sagebrush and lupine. The ranchers described the work of managing the landscape, pointing out logging scars and burn piles and where they brought in sheep to eat weeds like larkspur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the top of the climb, Texas singer-songwriter Brendon Scott Green had brought his guitar and amp to play away from the larger festival. He played among bird calls as the stream downhill wove through the grasslands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, Mannix said, is the kind of connection to the landscape he hoped the festival would inspire. To him, it\u2019s about transparency \u2014 people can see the land where their food was raised and decide for themselves if it\u2019s trustworthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really try not to be a brand that is focused on the cowboy hats, the ropes, boots and spurs. It\u2019s not about the \u201cYellowstone\u201d kind of image of the West,\u201d Mannix said. \u201cSo many meat brands try to make the rancher a hero or something. But I think that\u2019s a huge mistake. Because even the best rancher will fail when selling into an extractive system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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