Oregon Entrepreneur Showcase

Craig and I are looking forward to presenting at Slow Money Northwest‘s Oregon Entrepreneur Showcase on Friday, September 14th in Portland.  The event is open to accredited investors, who will get to hear from six great companies as well as meet and mingle with other leaders, investors, and supporters.  The event is from 5:30 to 8 pm at Xplane (411 SW 6th Ave) in downtown Portland.  Tickets can (and should) be bought in advance for $30, which includes food and drinks.

We presented Farmland LP at a similar gathering earlier this year and had a great time with quality people. This time, on September 14th we will present Vitality Farms LLC. While Farmland LP invests in and manages farmland, Vitality Farms  specializes in buying livestock for use in sustainable agriculture, such as on the diverse pastures sown on Farmland LP properties. We’ve been able to find great livestock managers, and Vitality Farms helps them scale up their operations to fill our now over 2,000 acres.

For example, life-long shepherd Mac Stewart (pictured below) can handle up to 2000 ewes, more than double the current flock of 950 ewes, in part due to the irrigation and fencing infrastructure on Farmland LP’s land, and the new Prattley handling equipment Vitality Farms brought in from New Zealand.  Mac works with John Neumeister to carry on a 30-year tradition of raising what many chefs in Portland consider the finest lamb in the region:  Cattail Creek Lamb.  Mac is looking forward to another 30 years.

In addition to cattle we bought for Bill Niman’s new company, BN Ranch, Vitality Farms is also collaborating with them in developing a state of the art pastured laying hen system for pastured eggs.  Neal and Karen Wells (pictured below) have moved their family to a home on one of Farmland LP’s farms near Corvallis to start this business.  The Wells are wonderful people with extraordinary passion, having spent the past three years searching for a place and a means to become pastured-poultry producers while also donating labor on farms in the Willamette Valley.

Vitality Farms is thrilled to be able to work with producers like Mac, Neal, and Karen (and of course Bill Niman and John Neumeister).  If you are interested in supporting the growth of high quality, healthy and tasty food in the greater Portland region you are welcome to join us and others at this Slow Money NW event.  If you have questions about the event you can contact Malaika Maphalala at Natural Investments (malaika@naturalinvestments.com). We look forward to seeing you there.