Become a Sustainavore!

Eat for your health, the planet, and your values.

Become a Sustainavore!

Eat for your health, the planet, and your values.

Is Crowdfunding Beef The Next Big Thing?

By now, you know that I’m on a mission to get folks to “eat more better meat.” And I also love defending the environmental and nutritional BENEFITS of grass-fed beef.  I’m always searching for companies that utilize the most sustainable business practices. Some of the issues I have with online meat sellers are that you don’t know who produced the meat you’re buying, you’re locked into a membership, and that the whole animal is not always sold. To me, this isn’t a sustainable system.

That’s why I’m super excited about a new company called Crowd Cow. For those of you who don’t have a great local source of high quality, grass-fed and dry-aged beef, Crowd Cow is THE closest thing to buying meat directly from a local farmer. They are the next big thing.

Know your farmer, and your beef!

No more mystery boxes of random cuts of beef from who-knows-where. With Crowd Cow, you know exactly where the beef was raised. Find out which breeds the rancher is raising, and see how the cattle live by viewing photos (and sometimes video) of the farm. Their producers go through a strict vetting process, ensuring that the animals were raised according to the highest standards and treated in the most humane way possible. Often, farmers aren’t the best marketers, so with Crowd Cow, they have access to customers that normally won’t know about them. It’s really a win-win for everyone!

Check out this short video on one of their producers:

You just won’t find this level of attention and quality at your local grocery store or through most online meat sellers.

Crowd Cow sells the whole animal.

Box-of-the-month clubs and most retailers don’t buy the less desirable cuts from the producer. This leaves the rancher stuck with bones, organ meats, and other cuts that don’t move as quickly. With Crowd Cow, the cow isn’t “sold” until all the parts are spoken for – when the cow is “tipped”. You pick your share, no memberships, no drama. Now this is a truly sustainable way to sell meat!

Manageable quantities.

If you’ve wanted to buy a cow share, but didn’t have room for a second freezer, then Crowd Cow is for you. The entire cow is sold to folks across the country, so if you’re not in a position to get your own, several hundred pound cow share, this really is the next best thing.

Dry-aged for the best taste.

The best thing is, their meat REALLY tastes great. Crowd Cow takes care of all the processing and dry-ages their beef for about 2 weeks, which greatly enhances the flavor and texture. This results in the best tasting grass-fed beef I’ve ever had. The cuts are then individually packaged into single-serve sizes pouches, labeled and flash frozen before being shipped to you.

Special offer

For the next 2 weeks, the folks at Crowd Cow have offered my followers $10 off their first order, so you can give their meat a try. All you need to do is follow this link, choose the share you want, and as soon as the other shares of the cow have sold, you’ll receive your share. So if you’re looking for a better connection to your food, but don’t have a grass-fed beef farmer near you, I highly recommend you give Crowd Cow a shot.

I really believe they’re the next “big thing” in sustainable sourcing and selling of meat!

My posts may contain affiliate links, which means you don’t pay any more, but I may make a small commission, which helps me continue to bring you great new posts. Read my full disclosure/disclaimer here.

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4 thoughts on “Is Crowdfunding Beef The Next Big Thing?”

  1. Hi Diana,
    This is such a glowing review of Crowd Cow – But, as a producer, I find them disappointing and disingenuous. At our ranch we raise some of the best beef available. We raise grass fed and grass finished Wagyu cattle. Our cattle are range cattle… they are not fed and finished on irrigated pastures with mono-crops or “pasture mixes” that take a huge amount of electric and water… We get choice and prime grade beef from cattle who have roamed rocky hillsides eating native grasses, shrubs like greasewood and even yucca pods…. But we a long long way from any our USDA processor and from markets for our beef. Crowd Cow would seem like a great option for us. When we spoke to them I learned they are not buying from any ranches in our area. They are also going to Japan to buy their Wagyu beef. They proudly buy from Japanese operations that function much more like creepy factories. They say their customers have asked for that beef. I tried to suggest that their customers might not know that there is such a thing as grass finished WAGYU raised right here in the USA. Their customers might not know of grass finished Wagyu and how it amazingly healthy and delicious and cattle raised on pastures have good lives. I wish there were more discussion in the grass fed food world of buying grass fed beef that is BORN and raised in the USA! Anyway, I love the idea of Crowd Cow but I am not sure that they are doing what they say they are doing…. Thank you for your good work!! If you are interested you can see some photos of our ranch and our cattle on our face book and instagram sites – Omega Beef Inc and here is our website: http://www.omegabeefwagyu,com

    Thanks, Jeanie Alderson Omega Beef Wagyu

  2. Hi Jeanie,

    Crowd Cow features Wagyu producers in the USA on a regular basis. As for “grass finished Wagyu”, in fact we work with the 1st grass finished Wagyu in the country. Please note that at this time we’re focused on Wagyu producers that meet the definitions set forth by the American Wagyu Association of Purebred or Fullblood Wagyu and which are located near our current centers of operation (for domestic producers, processing under USDA is critical, and this means our sourcing is concentrated in ways that we can help coordinate communities of small producers together in an area).

    Unfortunately, Omega Beef Wagyu is not Purebred or Fullblood Wagyu. Also we haven’t identified or established a USDA base of operations in or near Montana. As we expand (operations and consumer education and awareness of Wagyu) it is our hope that one day we will be able to work with you. Please keep in mind that as awareness of Wagyu in general grows and as our operational capacity grows, the demand and capability to serve your grass-finished cross-bred wagyu will also grow.

    thanks,
    Joe
    Crowd Cow

    1. You know how ridiculous this sounds, right Joe? Only supporting purebred or full blood animals (that humans created) is so shortsighted. Hybrid vigor is a real thing, and creates healthier animals. This comment does nothing to make me feel that you’re understanding sustainability. Importing from Japanese CAFOs instead of searching out US producers on grass is the OPPOSITE of sustainable sourcing. Your comments just further reinforce the reason I am no longer partnering with you and why I need to delete this post so that people don’t confuse you as a company dedicated to supporting sustainable practices.

      Your current ads on Facebook and Instagram say “Pasture-raised beef from small, independent farms across America” Are you going to tell me that pasture-raised is a “loose term” and could be applied to many practices? That the A5 beef could be called pasture-raised, and that Japan could be called America? How can you defend these ads when they’re completely false? If you continue to promote yourself as this sort of company, I’ll continue to make sure people know that “Transparency is Key” as you say in your emails, and that you need to clearly state exactly what you’re actually doing, not what you think people want to hear.

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