How We Benefit American Bison Restoration

The best way to restore American bison populations and reintegrate native species like bison to their historic ranges is to eat them.  Wait.....what???

As a child, I recall eating my first bison burger, and even under the age of 10 I was confusedly pondering the paradoxical situation.  I had heard stories of bison being unfairly and unethically eradicated from the plains, shot and wasted on the prairie with no regard for the animals' dignity or utility.  Then, here I was eating a burger made from one of these majestic creatures.  I didn't ask the adults around me, but I was forced to wonder as I ate the incredibly-delicious burger:  was it right to eat this animal?  Was I too in the wrong, like the bison hunters who wantonly killed so many for their own gain?

Well, life has a strange way of answering our questions.  Here I am over 20 years later, and I can say with certainty that I was not in the wrong, and you are not either--eating bison is absolutely the best way to incentivize restoring these incredible animals to their historic ranges, and in bolstering population numbers to ensure the safety and survival of the species.

We vote with our dollars everyday.  When one purchases bison meat (or even other products from bison, such as hides, horns, skulls, etc.), a percentage of those dollars ultimately make it back to the bison rancher.  A purchase of bison meat is a message to the rancher saying, "yes, please produce more of these animals. Please do more of what you are doing!"  The rancher is incentivized to produce more bison from his land, to purchase more land, and to expand his bison herd to meet expanding demand.  And so it is the case that eating bison and purchasing bison products is a vote and a message to the rancher to continue and to expand their existing operations.

However, we have all seen bison or cattle in pens or on land that is not really the existence we would want to create.  Some of these animals do not get to roam freely, or fully express their instinctual drives.  They do not get to fully express their bison-ness, so to speak.  

That is why at Pure Prairie, we meticulously source our bison organs, fat, and other bison-based products from ranches that produce happy bison.  Personally, we want more happy bison.  We want more healthy land.  We want more native species on their historic ranges, building nutrient-rich soil for the next generation, and offering nutrient-dense products to the current generation of humans, so that they can thrive and live their best and healthiest lives.  We believe that all these things are connected, and that you cannot have healthy humans without healthy animals, or without healthy land.  This is not meant to be a romantic or cute trope, but is meant to be as literal as could possibly be interpreted.  

So it is the case that we have hunted down the most mindful ranchers, those who are using cutting-edge regenerative agricultural techniques championed by the likes of Allan Savory, Joel Salatin, and other future-looking land stewards.  Some of our ranchers feature certifications from the Allan Savory Institute, Land to Market, Global Animal Partnership, the Audubon Society, and the American Grass-Fed Association.  We do not aim for merely grass-fed, but aim for the highest quality bison on the planet.  Our food exists on a continuum, not a black and white binary of "good" and "bad."  The whole truth is that our food is produced on a continuum of "better" to "worse," and at Pure Prairie, our mission has been to source from the ranches on the continuum at the far end of "better," pushing the standards of what is truly "Best."

If you want to contribute to the restoration of healthy, happy bison on their historic ranges--living in harmony with nature's rhythms, contributing to long term soil health, contributing to the health of American individuals, and supporting small family ranches that are doing things the Right way rather than the lucrative way--please consider purchasing some of our bison-based products such as our 100% grass-fed bison Liver & Heart Complex or our 100% Grass-fed bison Tallow.  Dollars from these purchases ultimately make it back to the ranchers that are doing things with integrity, building America from the ground up--as literally as could be.