We sat down with Jason Powers from Left Bank Butchery in Saxapahaw, NC to discuss how this business offers a crucial alternative to CAFO meat and supports clean water in the Haw River watershed.

Why do we need more whole-animal butcher shops?
When butcheries work together with local farmers to provide meat to the community, every ribeye has a story, every pork chop supports a local farmer, and every transaction flows back into the community instead of going to industrial meat producers using CAFOs that pollute our waterways.

Jason Powers, who co-runs Left Bank Butchery with Ross Flynn, doesn't mince words when it comes to how most meat is produced in this country. "*If you're not buying it directly from a smaller farm or from a high-quality grocer, if you're just going to the grocery store and buying meat, that’s almost certainly coming from a CAFO*."

In those concentrated animal feeding operations, (CAFO), animals are packed shoulder to shoulder until slaughter. The problems with these industrial producers of meat are myriad, from quality of life to quality of meat, but from a water quality perspective, one problem stands out: poor waste management.

"We're not buying pigs that are on concrete slabs having all of their waste pumped into a retention lagoon, which may or may not be properly lined," Jason explains. "It's going to flood. It's going to destroy the quality of life for neighbors, even if it doesn't flood." When these lagoons fail, overflow, or simply leach into groundwater, they release massive amounts of nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, into streams and rivers. This fuels algal blooms and creates hazards to aquatic life. Haw River Assembly actively monitors for and reports these heightened nutrient levels in our local waterways.

A Different Way Forward

Left Bank began from Ross's work at Cane Creek and Braebern farms. Back then, if you wanted to sell meat you raised, you had to send it to a slaughterhouse for processing into specific retail cuts, with no control over how it was cut or handled.

They now work with three main farms—Cane Creek Farm, May Farm, and Randleman Farm—all practicing rotational grazing and pasture-based animal husbandry. The relationships aren't transactional; they're personal. The farmers often visit the shop and get to know the customers. It is a family affair.

"Anytime we decide that we need another farm, which is rare, the first thing we do is visit the farm and see what kind of lives the animals have." Jason says. Those lives matter, not just ethically, but environmentally.

Rotational Grazing: A Watershed Protection Practice

Here's something I never knew before talking with Jason: a cow wants to eat the first cut of grass because it contains all the sugar. Left on pasture too long, they'll come back for the second cut, then eat it all the way down to mineral soil. That's when erosion becomes a serious problem.

With proper rotational grazing, cows are moved daily. They take that nutrient-rich first cut and leave everything else, creating a hyper-fertilized soil that still looks like green grass. No bare ground. No erosion. No need for trucks spraying fertilizer across fields.

"One of the biggest things about rotational grazing is that you're not having to go back and fertilize that land," Jason notes. He spent a decade living next to a cattle farm with no pasture management whatsoever—eroded creeks, terrible-looking pastures, and periodic fertilizer sprayings. The contrast with farms like Randelman couldn't be more stark.

Keeping Animals Out of Waterways

Both cows and pigs can wreak havoc on streams if given unfettered access. A 1,300 to 1,500-pound cow can cave in creek banks and destroy root systems along waterways. Pigs are even worse—they'll wallow in creeks, polluting everything downstream.

There are resources and grants available for farmers who want to protect streams on their land and prevent livestock access to waterways. It's the kind of best practice that should be standard, but, Jason says, isn't always feasible without support.

The Whole Animal Philosophy

"If you go to the grocery store and buy a pound of ground beef, it probably has 15 or 20 different cows worth of beef in it," Jason says. "We really have the accountability of knowing exactly what we're selling people."

Here's the catch: paying fair prices to farmers only works if you can make every part of the animal count. Left Bank practices whole animal processing. "If you're going to eat meat and you're going to work with animals and butchery, you owe it to the animal and the farmer to do something with every last bit of it that you possibly can."

What Consumers Can Do

When I asked Jason what people should look for when choosing meat, whether at Left Bank or elsewhere, his answer was straightforward: "Ask about the animals and whether someone can tell you what farm they're from and what practices are used to raise those animals."

If the answer is "I don't know, we just got this from our distributor," that may not be the meat you want to buy. Ask about feed sources. Ask about pasture management. Ask about water quality protections. Anyone who's proud of their meat and their practices will be happy to answer these questions.

Jason's philosophy on cost and affordability is equally practical. "I'd rather have a small steak that comes from a farmer I know and that I'm really going to enjoy, relish and feel good about, than a giant double cheeseburger from Walmart ground beef."

Importantly, the nutrient density of pasture-raised meat far exceeds commodity meat. The environmental impact is incomparable and the economic impact of shopping for meat locally keeps dollars in our community.

Supporting the System

For Haw River Assembly and our members, Jason's policy recommendations begin with providing farmers with more grant funding and also having readily available and accessible knowledge about best practices. “There're a lot of farmers who start out and have the best intentions and just don't know where to look for the answers," he notes.

With current political shifts drying up funding for sustainable, small farm work, supporting small, local farms through policy and grants becomes even more critical. Jason said passionately, “Farms work on razor-thin margins. Without support, they won't exist—and we'll lament our limited choices.”

A Reverential Approach

Jason wants to enrich the farms, the environment, and the community. "I find what we do, when I'm at my best, kind of reverential."

That reverence extends from the 1,300-pound steer grazing on Randleman's pastures to the family coming in on a budget who wants to feed their kids something delicious and special. This extends to the Haw River, protected because animals aren't wallowing in its tributaries. It extends to the soil, naturally fertilized and holding its ground against erosion. This is a food system that works with our water systems, rather than against it.

Our goal, here at Haw River Assembly, is to help provide people in our watershed with alternatives to conventional meats from CAFOs. To learn more about this approach to whole-animal butchery and Left-Bank Butchery, visit THIS LINK.

From Pasture to Plate: How a Whole-Animal Butcher Shop Protects the Haw River