The Foundation for Little Colorado Revitalization’s Little Colorado Meats was formed in response to a set of unique challenges in Apache County. While cattle production has long been an economic driver in Apache County, the number of family ranchers and smaller producers has been shrinking for the last few decades. Family ranches are being bought by large corporations, investors and land trust organizations which move cattle grown in Apache County to the Midwest to feedlots and eventual harvest and processing to large conglomerate meat packers. This trend in vertical integration of the meat processing industry has exacerbated the already narrow profit margins for family ranches. At the same time food insecurity challenges have continued to rise in Apache County. Local consumers have considerably less access to healthy, locally-grown meats. Due to the extremely limited number of USDA inspected processing facilities in this region, ranchers are suffering huge losses in the traditional mid-west markets, because they don’t have a local market for their livestock. Over 90% of livestock raised in Apache County is leaving the area and at the same time local residents and consumers are paying higher and higher prices for lower quality meats at the stores, if they can even get to a store to purchase meat.

Little Colorado Meats is designed to create and increase new markets for local livestock producers and at the same time increase the quality of and access to quality meats for local residents and consumers.