She tries to connect farmers, researchers, retailers and regulators: Kansas beef producer uses proactive approach

Diana Endicott is one of a new breed of beef producer. She runs a 400-acre certified organic farm in eastern Kansas with her husband, Gary. In addition to the greenhouse vegetables they sell to upscale Kansas City restaurants, they market their all-natural beef in supermarkets through a producers' cooperative that Diana helped organize three years ago. In the midst of dying rural communities and industrialized agriculture, their future looks bright.

"We're making connections with consumers," says Endicott, whose cooperative provides an estimated $9,000 of beef wholesale each week to more than two dozen Hen House and Ball Food stores in the Kansas City area.

Coop sees growing success
The beef comes from 15 active members of the All-Natural Beef Producers Cooperative in central and southeast Kansas and west central Missouri. To qualify for membership, a producer must raise cattle without growth hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics. All beef is corn-fed finished, butchered in small rural locker plants, USDA inspected, and dry-aged to improve tenderness. It sells for about $1 more per pound than other beef products. Endicott says one selling point is that it comes from small "family" farms, not large-scale confinement operations.

Sales are modest but growing. She adds, "The potential is there. The only question is who is going to fill it-large companies, independents or groups of producers."

Endicott's success, however, has a "very high learning curve." A recipient of several state and federal grants, she has successfully maneuvered the maze of federal regulations, and is developing "how-to" manuals for small producers. She's also working on new marketing plans that could be replicated in other regions.

In demand on the lecture circuit during the off-season, Endicott came to Ames in February for Iowa State University's annual sustainable agriculture seminar series supported by the Leopold Center. Her trip was hosted by the Iowa Beef Center.

Key to survival
"Working together is the only way I'll be able to stay on the farm," says Endicott, who left a thriving landscape business in Dallas five years ago. "If it doesn't work this way, it never will."

The biggest challenge is getting various groups together-producers, research institutions, retail industry and regulators. "Producers need to learn how to use USDA regulations to their advantage rather than sit around and complain about them," she says. "But it's hard for some to encompass all the technology needed to do that."

Co-op members use e-mail to communicate with one another. Producers also must be able to read spreadsheets for carcass data, and implement labeling and lotting systems to retain product identification. The co-op maintains a site on the World Wide Web, www.goodnatured.net.

Value-added products next
Endicott's operation received a state grant to develop value-added products, such as frankfurters and marinated roasts, from their low-end cuts of meat. All are being marketed under the "Good-Natured" brand name. The effort supports small-town locker plants also struggling to survive.

"We've lost half of the farms in our county to nonagricultural jobs. Everyone is going to the city for better opportunities and jobs. We forget that agriculture is the basis of these communities and there needs to be a balance for support in ag and non-ag sectors."

All-natural is key, too. "Raising animals in this way and marketing them to urban consumers makes an important connection," she explains. "Urban consumers need to know that how you raise and care for animals affects them, too, in the quality of their air and water. Only then can people really begin to understand the rural community, and keep a part of their heritage."