Sustainable Food Must Also be Affordable

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Since the dawn of industrial agriculture, consumers have demanded cheap, abundant, safe, consistent and tasty food. Today a growing number of consumers want additional attributes on top of that says Pasturebird founder Paul Greive.

Greive… “The interesting thing to me is people are starting to ask for something different. And so I think you see these big ag companies wanting to produce what people are asking for. At the end of the day, you know, they're businesses, like they want to produce a product that people want. So for 30, 40 years people asked for cheap chicken and they got cheap chicken, like big ag did a really, really, really good job of giving cheap chicken. Now I think people are coming in tune with this idea of like, it's not all about just cheap. Like it does need to come at a good cost or a good price, but we're looking for other attributes: nutrient density, like what's it doing for the environment, the soil, animal welfare. Like, we're thinking about more than just price now, which is good. And big ag wants to do things differently, you know? So when we had the chance to start talking to Perdue and helping them build a real, authentic, genuine pasture raised program. It was like, no, no, this is a good thing too.”

Pasturebird was acquired by Perdue Farms in 2019. Greive says he supports local, small scale regenerative agriculture, but in order for sustainable food to also be affordable, it will need to scale with bigger ag companies.