Hey all – welcome back for the fourth installment of The Food Lovers Dish It. We had the great pleasure of talking with Rod Morrison of Rocky Mountain Organic Meats this week. In this episode, Rod talks about his passion for sustainability and organic food, and his journey to becoming a certified organic rancher. His commitment to it was the result of a well-traveled world view, experiencing what ‘real food’ was like while abroad. He brought that perspective home with him and started working with the folks writing out the USDA certification requirements for organic meat. Rod’s story is inspiring, and he’s a tremendous source of knowledge. He is always happy to share his knowledge with others (anything he can do to get the word out). If you have any questions for him, give him a shout on Twitter where he is @GrassfedOrganic.
0:14 – Welcome
2:30 -What is organic?
6:00 – Certified organic status
8:52 – Rocky Mountain Organic Meats
11:30 – Raised in the Rockies, where the grass is greener!
12:25 – What inspired you to go the organic route? / Your involvement in developing the certification process for the USDA organic meats program
19:25 – Hayley is going to eat beef again
22:25 – Why you need to buy organic
27:50 – Wyoming is wonderful
29:00 – Living on stored sunshine
29:56 – Humane animal treatment and (not) administering antibiotics
35:51 – Sustainability and its relationship to our food supply
40:20 – Food awareness
43:30 – The Food Lovers visit RMOM
47:48 – Whats your favorite cut of beef, and how do you prepare it?
Super interesting interview. @grassfedorganic really filled in some of the blanks for me about grass fed vs certified organic. It is also so important for the farmers to farm organically. The pesticides are so awful for them.
What do you think about the products sold at Whole Foods?
@Shane- Rod did the same for us. We had no idea that certified organic was the key word with buying grass fed beef until he got on the phone with us. Really makes you think…
@Creative Mind- We like the meat at Whole Foods, however, they have a lot of meat that is boldly labeled GRASS FED, but it is not certified organic. They have a few cuts of beef that are certified organic grass fed, but they are not clearly labeled, so we had to ask. If you can find a local farm to support, we would suggest that. We have also been getting certified organic grass fed ground beef at Trader Joe's. That is also hidden, but it is only 5.99 a lb, and is delicious cooked up with eggs.