As an amateur chef, Matthew Lawrence quickly learned that the quality of meat used in a meal has a huge impact on the final product. As he catered local weddings and competitions, he struggled to find local and sustainable meat from farmers nearby. To improve his craft and provide a better alternative to grocery store meats, Matthew and his wife Jesie decided to create what they were searching for by starting their own sustainable multi-species pasture farm in Sylacauga, Alabama. After all, as Matthew says, nature is where all the activity happens.

If starting their own farm wasn’t ambitious enough, Matthew and Jesie also built their own USDA inspected processing facility to service both their farm and other local farmers. Providing a local processor for the community results in better meats for everyone.

Larry Tebben and his wife Michele believe in living a holistic life and knowing where things come from, which is why they’re committed to raising Fullblood Black Wagyu at Tebben Ranches in Floresville. Over the past 12 years, Larry has built a strong herd with extremely good marbling.

“It’s been my passion since I discovered it,” Larry says. “I always believed that when you have a passion for something, you’re going to become very good at it.”

A few hours north of Philadelphia are the Pocono Mountains. Well-known on the East Coast for luxury resorts, a NASCAR track, and some of the best camping in the U.S., the Poconos are also where you can find millennial farmer Nolan Thevenet raising heritage-breed hogs deep in the woods.

In 2010, at age 21, Stryker Farm’s owner Nolan Thevenet decided to drop out of college and follow his dream of working outside and being a farmer. Though his friends and family were at first freaked out by his foreclosure on a "normal" professional career, he reassured them with jokes, saying “What could possibly go wrong?”

For more than 40 years, the Bruce family has raised grass-finished beef on a long stretch of peninsula in Northwest Tasmania. John and Angela Bruce, along with their veterinarian daughter Dr. Emma, son Lain, and his wife Jane, are firmly committed to land welfare and sustainability that produces all-natural and deliciously rich beef.

Nestled within the 1826 Royal Charter land grant to the Van Diemans Land Company, Western Plains has a longstanding history of fresh pastures and clean sea air. Known for the Circular Head or “Nut,” this peninsula preserves perennial grasses including ryegrass, fescue, and clovers.

At Sunny Pastures Farm in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, David Sensenig and his family are raising heritage-cross pork including breeds like Hampshire, which were originally developed to be adapted specifically to Kentucky. The pigs live entirely on pasture because David’s philosophy is that livestock should be fully outdoors, as nature intended.