CONSERVATION

ecovery rates are related to the differences in fecundity rates and lifespan, particularly
between large livestock and poultry. Today, there are at least 263 producers in the U.S. selling
meat, milk or cheese from these recovering breeds of livestock, and another 1064 producers
selling eggs or meat of recovery poultry breeds.
One of the first collaborative efforts toward market recovery of rare poultry breeds
brought Frank Reese and his Good Shepard Turkey Ranch network together with Slow Food
USA and the American Livestock Conservancy (then known as ALBC). Slow Food USA’s first
director Patrick Martins then went on to co-found Heritage Foods USA, which now moves
into the market place an average of 50,000 pounds of pork from 200 pigs of heritage breeds
per week. Heritage Foods also features once-a-year mail order campaigns that move 6000 to
7000 turkeys of heritage breeds each November in advance of Thanksgiving, 1000 heritage
goats each October, 1500 heritage ducks and geese each December in advance of Christmas,
Hanukah and New Year’s, and close to 1000 half lamb packages of four heritage breeds in
March in advance of Passover and Easter. These collaborations with Heritage Foods USA now
provide the primary source of income from thirty to thirty-five farming families across the
country. Martins attributes much of his success in fostering the market recovery of rare breeds
to the commitment many chefs have made to paying a fixed price per pound to the farmers
and ranchers who maintain populations of these rare but recovering livestock breeds:
“The chefs have really rallied behind the notion of restaurant-supported agriculture. They
have helped maintain a beautiful landscape all across America, through which something akin
to an ‘underground railroad’ functions to keep these imperiled heritage breeds alive.”
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