Bison in South Dakota. Photo from Sustainable Harvest Alliance / Facebook
A wakeup call to Native American buffalo ranchers
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor NEW YORK CITY – The Rapid City-based Sustainable Harvest Alliance, dedicated to connecting Indian reservations and small-scale bison ranches with markets for grass-fed meat, is one of six South Dakota non-profit organizations chosen for listing in the first annual “Good Food Org Guide,” the James Beard Foundation and Food Tank announced Oct. 27. The others organizations are Dakota Rural Action, Feeding South Dakota, Glacial Lakes Permaculture, Hills Horizon, and iGrow. “Food Tank is delighted to collaborate on this effort with the James Beard Foundation,” said Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg. “We’re thrilled to highlight so many great organizations who are working to educate, inspire, and cultivate a better food system,” she said. The James Beard Food Conference on Oct. 27 hosted the book’s presentation, billing it as “the definitive guide to organizations—national and state-by-state—who are making an impact with their work” to combat childhood obesity, malnourishment, and physical inactivity; prevent food waste; educate consumers on healthy, nutritious food choices; create networks of social entrepreneurs; protect food and restaurant workers; highlight solutions for restoring the health of people and the planet; work with indigenous communities to preserve traditions, culture, and biodiversity; inspire and educate individuals to cook more of their own food; and protect public health, human health, and the environment. “We hope this guide will serve as a resource for chefs, farmers, students, advocates, and others … about the growing good-food movement in the U.S.,” James Beard Foundation President Susan Ungaro said in a written statement. Sustainable Harvest Alliance not only connects tribal bison ranchers with markets, it encourages environmental sustainability, humane livestock practices, and Native American cultural resilience. The main activity of the alliance is to run a mobile butcher shop so that small-scale bison producers, especially on the reservations of western South Dakota, can get their grass-fed bison to market in a humane, environmentally friendly, and culturally acceptable way. Sinte Gleske University, on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, was the first outfit to take advantage of the concept in order to market meat from its buffalo herd, according to a college staff source. Public interest in prairie-raised buffalo has spread due to nutritional values of the meat. It is lower in calories, fat, and cholesterol than chicken or fish. It is higher in protein than beef. It is lean and has 3.5 times more healthful antioxidant Omega 3 fatty acids than beef or buffalo fed or finished on grain. However, getting the product from the range to the market has proven costly. The mobile unit allows for economical meat processing in the field, eliminating the need for corrals, confinement, stress on the animals, and dangers for herd managers. As Sustainable Harvest Alliance Founder Dan O’Brien explains, many bison purveyors “struggle with the inhumanity of modern-day slaughterhouses. Crowding pens, kill floors, and perpetual aura of death are not only a terrifying experience for the wild bison that we owe so much to, but also an affront to a way of life that honors the relationship among all animals,” he said. “Sustainable Harvest Alliance aspires to reinstate the spiritual connection between the people and the bison by bringing the harvest process back to the land. In the process of achieving that objective, bonds of spirituality and health can be reestablished,” he said. Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member Shane Brown said he went to work on the mobile unit “because it’s everything we stand for as Lakota people, the respect for the animals, the way the animals are harvested. It brought joy to me,” he said. “I know we’re doing a good thing here.” The method allows a small producer, with little or no access to capital, to make more profit than selling stock on the hoof. It helps tap a growing and vibrant market of healthy, sustainable red meat. Taking part in a sing for the sacrifice of a buffalo in the Sustainable Harvest Alliance program, Cheyenne River tribal member Rocky Afraid of Hawk remarked, “So much respect for this animal and this land it makes my heart feel pretty good.” Among the other five South Dakota organizations listed in the first edition of the food guide, Dakota Rural Action (DRA) is the main statewide agriculture advocacy organization. DRA conducts grassroots organizing to obtain measures encouraging family farming, ranching and conservation. DRA members work on issues ranging from local food economy to preventing environmental damage from industrial agriculture and foreign investors to renewable energy. Also among the five, Feeding South Dakota partners with Feeding America to reduce hunger in the state. The organization provides food assistance to 21,000 individuals and families and runs a BackPack Program distributing “food for the weekend” to 5,000 children who otherwise would go hungry. Also included, Glacial Lakes Permaculture, based in Estelline, provides educational programming and design consulting to organizations and individuals interested in permaculture design to boost food security. Another group, Hills Horizon uses education and community engagement to help individuals in the Northern Black Hills develop sustainable lifestyles. By hosting local food projects, including farmers markets and neighborhood gardens, the group contributes to creating an educated and thriving community. iGrow, a program of the South Dakota State University Extension Service, teaches community development and agricultural methods through projects such as New Roots for New Americans, which facilitates refugees’ participation in horticulture, gardening, food preservation, and local food cultivation. The objective of the new annual publication is to focus attention on the dozens of nonprofit organizations (listed in alphabetical order, not ranked) that are working in fields, kitchens, classrooms, laboratories, businesses, town halls, and Congress to create a better food system. The list was determined by distinguished experts, including past recipients of the James Beard Leadership Award and food and agriculture leaders. Food Tank is a think tank focused on feeding the world better. Its efforts are to research and highlight environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty and create networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change.” A cookbook author and teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge about food, Beard, who died in 1985, was a champion of American cuisine. He helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts, instilling in them the value of wholesome, healthful, and delicious food. The foundation’s programs include educational initiatives, food industry awards, scholarships for culinary students, publications, chef advocacy training, and conferences. It maintains the historic James Beard House in New York City’s Greenwich Village as a “performance space” for visiting chefs. In September of 2012, JBF launched the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Protocol and helped create the American Chef Corps as a way to champion American chefs abroad, promote American food products, and foster an interest in domestic culinary culture and history through international programs and initiatives. One such project is the next world’s fair, Expo Milano 2015, in which the James Beard Foundation and the State Department teamed up to design and produce the USA Pavilion. A way for 147 countries to address challenges of meeting food demand, the pavilion theme will be “American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet.” It will showcase U.S. contributions to global food security and gastronomy. (Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.org) Copyright permission Native Sun News
Join the Conversation