Barry Pope believes all sheep, beef and deer farmers should have the chance to do what he and six others have done - tell their stories to shoppers over a barbecue at top supermarkets in New York, Boston and Washington, DC, in the United States. Not only did the Americans love the Kiwi venison the farmers cooked for them, but they passed on their surprisingly knowledgeable views of NZ. "They see NZ as a producer of healthy food, regardless of our own arguments over how clean and green we are," says Mr Pope, who manages two big Maori incorporation farms near Lake Taupo. "That perception is our strongest selling point." Fellow deer farmer Andy Russell agrees. "They see what we do as natural farming. Raising animals in the outdoors on green pastures is what they call organic." The farmers are shareholders in Firstlight Venison, a Hawke's Bay-based exporter of chilled venison to top-end supermarkets in Britain, Europe and the US. Their barbecue tastings were in Whole Foods Market stores, a company which sprang from farmers' markets and claims to be the world's biggest natural and organic supermarket chain, with more than 270 stores in Britain and the US. Firstlight, the brainchild of meat marketer Gerard Hickey, began four years ago and now has 23 shareholder farmers supplying it with 15,000 under-two-year-old deer year round reports Stuff. A basic principle of Firstlight's supply organisation is to ensure breeders and finishers are rewarded equally. Its farmers think this should be a beacon for the beleaguered meat industry. It is a sore point among lamb breeders that prices can be low at the time they are forced to sell their stock and then rise by the time the finishers who buy them have added the kilograms necessary to bring them up to slaughter weights. Firstlight's breeders contract to supply finishers with a set number of weaners of certain weights at certain times. The breeders have the security of knowing that they have a market for their stock, and the finishers know the stock will be available at the agreed time and can plan accordingly.
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