Rise in Families Interested in 'Protein Sovereignty'
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
“Protein sovereignty” is the idea that families take steps to produce their own meat, milk and eggs. Zack Smith originally marketed his rotational grazing equipment company, Stock Cropper, to large scale commercial farmers. But he has pivoted his efforts toward the protein sovereignty community, which he says he’s a part of himself.
Smith… “ At the same point, I knew that there was something important, bigger opportunity perhaps, and there more media, I should say, with this protein sovereignty space because I've been living it myself. My family has grown all of our own protein for the last 15 years. I've raised my kids this way. My girls were pulling hearts out of chickens when they were five years old out in the yard, butchering. I've had a lot of other friends and family that have come into that with me. So we would grow a dozen hogs either in the stock cropper or in my barn here, and we'd invite people to come together and butcher in the fall. It would change people's outcomes. My brother-in-law, he had a daughter that was a vegan until the stock cropper pork and dad going and doing the butchering and the family raising it together, it changed her viewpoints. Now she's back eating meat again because she can feel comfortable with how the animals were raised and participating in the system. So there's something more deep, deeper in meaning in this protein sovereignty space. This isn't about cost per pound of the protein, it's about the cost per experience. And that's why I really think this is a powerful thing we're onto here.”
Smith sees this trend toward homesteading and protein sovereignty continuing.
