Organic Prairie, the brand of delicious organic meats produced by the same farmer-owned co-op as Organic Valley, today announced it has signed a partnership with Lorentz Meats, a family-owned meat market and processing plant with four decades of history in Cannon Falls, Minnesota and neighboring regions. The partnership will allow Organic Prairie to consolidate regional production, increase capacity and sustain its high standards of quality—from pasture-based feeding and humane animal treatment to delicious organic taste.?
“We are very pleased to establish a partnership with Lorentz Meats, our longtime processor located right here in the Midwest that is still run by the family that started it,” said George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley and Organic Prairie. “With the Lorentz brothers, we have grown up in the organic meat industry and share a common mission of helping smaller regional farms stay in business. We look forward to their ongoing leadership now, and in the future.”?
“The partnership with Organic Prairie will make it possible to expand our capacity and serve a larger segment of the farming community,” said Mike Lorentz of Lorentz Meats. We are excited to work with Organic Prairie and continue our commitment to great tasting healthy foods and the farms that provide them.”
Lorentz Meats specializes in organic and grass-fed meat, and their commitment to transparency was recognized in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Lorentz Meats is located right in the center of the region and is a full-service facility, processing and finishing a wide variety of high-quality organic products from grinds and sausage to portion-cutting and packaging of beef, turkey, chicken, and pork.
As pioneers of the organic meat industry, Organic Prairie farmers began producing delicious meats without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, persistent pesticides or GMOs back in 1996. They insisted on third-party organic meat certification long before federal organic standards were established and were the first in the industry to ban animal by-products from cattle’s diet. Organic Prairie also played a vital role in shaping federal organic meat certification standard. In the past year alone, Organic Prairie has experienced 17% growth in sales and offers a full line of organic beef, pork, chicken and turkey—from steak to grass-fed burgers—all organic and available year-round in stores nationwide and online.
About Organic Prairie
Organic Prairie produces a full range of delicious, high quality organic meats, from the same farmers who produce for Organic Valley. Organic Prairie’s farmers are committed to providing your family with the healthiest, most wholesome meat, raised humanely in accordance with organic principles and practices—respecting the dignity and interdependence of human, animal, plant, soil and global life. Organic Prairie has more than 220 farmer owners across the Heartland of America, and is available in select supermarkets, natural food stores and food cooperatives. For more information, or to purchase Organic Prairie products at our online store, please visit www.organicprairie.coop.
About Lorentz Meats
Established in 1968, Lorentz Meats started as a hometown meat market and quickly established a reputation in the region for quality, trust and customer service.? Today, Lorentz Meats is a medium-small sized, family-run, meat processing plant in Cannon Falls, MN specializing in natural and organic meat processing. With more than 70 employees, the company offers complete services from humane slaughter and meat cutting to making smoked and cooked sausage products. Lorentz Meats works a wide range of customers from individual farmers, to national cooperatives of farmers, like Organic Prairie.? Please visit www.lorentzmeats.com.
Organic Valley: Independent and Farmer-Owned
Organic Valley is America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation’s leading organic brands. Organized in 1988, it represents 1,658 farmers in 35 states and three Canadian provinces, and achieved $619 million in 2010 sales. Focused on its founding mission of saving family farms through organic farming, Organic Valley produces a variety of organic foods, including organic milk, soy, cheese, butter, spreads, creams, eggs, produce and juice, which are sold in supermarkets, natural foods stores and food cooperatives nationwide. With its regional model, milk is produced, bottled and distributed right in the region where it is farmed to ensure fewer miles from farm to table and to support our local economies. The same farmers who produce for Organic Valley also produce a full range of delicious organic meat under the Organic Prairie label. For further information, call 1-888-444-MILK or visit www.organicvalley.coop, www.organicprairie.coop and the cooperative’s farmer website, www.farmers.coop. Organic Valley is also on Twitter @OrganicValley and Facebook www.facebook.com/OrganicValley.
